Flowforming, also known as flowturning, is an advanced form of spinning. It is based on a predetermined reduction of the thickness of a starting blank or preform. The reduction is closely controlled, which results in a very uniform or precisely varied wall thickness in the finished part.

The process starts with the creation of a preform, which is engineered to ensure there is exactly the right amount of material to form into the final shape. This takes into account the varying wall thicknesses and conical tapering. The preform is created using any number of processes including deep drawing, stamping and press forming.

Once the preform is complete, the flowforming process can begin. The preform is spun and pressed against a mandrel to give it the desired shape. In a manner similar to rolling dough, the material is "pushed ahead" to allow a larger finished product to be created from a smaller preform.

Flowforming is an excellent method for forming stainless and heat-resistant steels because the ductility and tensile strength of these materials are ideal for this cold extrusion process. This process produces parts that are round in cross section, but may be straight-sided cones or cylinders, contoured shapes, or combinations of the above.

The unique properties of the Flowforming process allow for creative, cost-effective engineering or re-engineering of your product or part to:

• incorporate separate component parts into a single seamless piece
• reduce assembly costs by reducing the number of components
• increase tensile strength so you can use less material
• provide design versatility
  - 1" to 24" hollow cylindrical, conical or contoured shapes with accurate, uniform profiles and wall thicknesses of 0.015" to 0.100" with 0.010 or less tolerance
  - thicker bottoms and thinner walls
  - thick to thin walls without welding sections together
  - wall thickness customized to stress requirements
  - produce superior interior finishes without additional manufacturing steps
  - improve metallurgical strength and hardness.
  

FlowformingPlus

By skillfully combining flowforming with its other family of processes, PMF makes it possible for its customers to achieve their design requirements with minimum compromise. That's FlowformingPlus.

See the benefits of using flowforming for manufacturing parts or assemblies.

PMF Case Studies also show real world examples of how flowforming and PMF ingenuity provide manufacturing solutions.

PMF pioneered the development and daily use of computer modeling of flowform shapes and the analysis of the factors involved in the flowform process. Utilizing this scientific approach PMF has been able to reduce development, setup and material costs for its customers.