Over the last 100 years or so the ford motor company has gotten really good at stamping sheet metal parts.
Ford rapid prototyping sheet metal.
Rapid prototyping rp techniques in the sheet metal forming industry is developed to quickly test the form and fit of new sheet metal products on a prototype basis as well as for production runs characterized by small lot sizes.
Ford calls this ford freeform fabrication technology f3t.
Rapid prototyping for sheet metal parts posted in the technical forum.
Sadly stamping can take up to 6 8 weeks from the time the design leaves the cad station so it s not great for prototyping.
See how ford does it with this short video video.
Ford engineers are developing a highly flexible first of its kind patented technology to rapidly form sheet metal parts for low volume production applicati.
To speed up prototyping ford has created a rapid process they call the ford freeform fabrication technology f3t for short.
Allowing them to fabricate a three dimensional part from a two dimensional sheet of metal in just hours.
Ford reveals new rapid prototyping and low volume production techniques w video.