Forming Mechanisms
README
There's only so many ways things are formed into different shapes and states. Whenever you see something in any shape, try to find out the forming mechanism!
- Cast into Mold, like molten tin being poured into a mold reverse-shaped like a model airplane.
- Extruded, like when semi-molten aluminum is pressed into a plate with a small V-shaped opening and hence comes out the other side in a V-shape.
- Air-blown, like semi-molten glass being rotated and blown into a vase-shape.
- Hydroformed, like a round aluminum tube being pressed by hydraulic fluid at super-high pressure into a solid mold reverse-shaped like the frame of a bicycle.
- Pressed, like a heated steel block being high-pressure pressed by solid metal into a mold.
- Magnaformed, like a plate of iron being twisted into an irregular shape by powerful electromagnets.
- Punching, like a vertical round bar pressing down an aluminum plate at high-pressure while underneath the plate is a strong steel support with a hole in the middle slightly larger diameter than the vertical round bar.
- Struck, like a hammer pounding an edge into hot steel for a sword or a chisel whittling away pieces of wood for a sculpture.
- Ground, like an abrasive wheel rotating quickly against an iron block to whittle iron particles away towards the block's precise dimensions.
- Solid-sharp-cutting, like a knife cutting a tomato in half, or an endmill finishing the top surface of an aluminum plate, a flycutter roughly removing lots of iron from a block, a bandsaw/circular-saw cutting lumber in half, boring bar enlargening the inner diameter of a steel tube.
- Plasma cutting, when a stream of high-speed ionized air with high current blows and melts through a conductive material.
- Waterjet cutting, when a mixture of water and an abrasive are sent into a high pressure stream to abrasive-cut a material.
- Brushing, like when stainless steel brush is high-speed rotated to clean the surface of a steel table.
- Sandblasting, when a blanket of abrasive is high-pressure shot towards a material to finish its surface.
- Lasercutting, when a high-intensity light beam precisely melts/burns/vaporizes a material.
- Flamecutting, like when oxygen and acetylene are burned for a hot flame to melt/cut steel easily with the help of the exothermic reaction.
- Chemical Reaction, like when a copper clad board is immersed in acid and the acid removes all of the copper that is not protected by a resin coating.
Direct Thermal
Cast Iron Skillet
Extruded Aluminum
Solid
Hammering
Chiseling
Straight Blade Cutting Tomato
Saw Blade Cutting Wood
Abrasive Cutting Steel
Rotary Punching Steel Sheet
Liquid
Hydroformed Tube
Waterjet Cutting a Steel Sheet
