Hot Metal Gas Forming was first conceived as a low cost alternative to forming steel tubular components for automotive structures. The idea was simple, place a pre-bent tubular structure into a die cavity, inductively heat it and then expand the tube to the inside cavity shape using gas pressure. A proposal of the same name was developed and proposed to a NIST-ATP solicitation, and funding was secured in the fall of 1998.
The first technical paper on the Hot Metal Gas Forming process was given to a packed audience at the SAE conference / International Body Engineering Conference in September of 1999. A copy of that paper is attached below.
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| HMGF – Early Process and Tooling Design Concepts |
| HMGF – Early FEA analysis / laboratory testing |
| HMGF – Production Proveout and large tool design |
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