A state of the art review of hydroforming technology: its applications, research areas, history and future in manufacturing

Hydroforming is a relatively new metal forming process with many advantages over traditional cold forming processes including the ability to create more complicated components with fewer operations. For certain geometries, hydroforming technology permits the creation of parts that are lighter weight, have stiffer properties, are cheaper to produce and can be manufactured from fewer blanks which produces less material waste. This paper provides a detailed survey of the hydroforming literature of both established and emerging processes in a single taxonomy. Recently reported innovations in hydroforming processes (which are incorporated in the taxonomy) are also detailed and classified in terms of “technology readiness level”. The paper concludes with a discussion on the future of hydroforming including the current state of the art techniques, the research directions, and the process advantages to make predictions about emerging hydroforming technologies.