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Compared with more traditional forming benefits hydroforming offers a number of benefits when a closed structure is required. Enhanced structural efficiency permits mass savings to be achieved, the elimination of joining flanges offers greater packaging freedom and mass saving and parts consolidation may yield cost saving in materials, manufacturing, tooling and assembly. | |
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| A hydroformed component has a continuously joined closed section compared to stamping which joins two half-shells locally with spot welds. The continuous joining provides greater structural integrity, often enabling significant mass savings to be achieved. | |||||
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Hydroforming does not require joining flanges to achieve a closed structure. Elimination of these flanges gives greater packaging freedom. | |||||
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| As a minimum, one hydroformed component will replace two stamped half-shells. Careful design may enable further component integration, yielding manufacturing and investment cost savings. | |||||
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The increased structural performance of a hydroformed component enables mass savings to be achieved compared to equivalent stamped designs by enabling lower thicknesses or smaller sections to be used. | |||||
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| Component integration yields both investment and manufacturing cost savings to be achieved. Mass savings arising from the increased structural performance of hydroforms reduces material cost. | |||||
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