Rubber-Pad Forming

In principle, this process uses a flexible rubber-pad, attached to a hydraulic ram, which forces a piece of sheet metal to conform to the shape of a forming block.

Like stretch-forming, the process only uses one former, so it eliminates critical matching and alignment problems of conventional pressing. When used for small batches (e.g. aircraft production), low-cost, easy to machine, materials can be used for the forming block.

Rubber-Bag forming (Hydro-forming) uses the same principle, but incorporates a flexible diaphragm and hydraulic pressure in place of the rubber pad.