Machines | Ford introduces new sheet-metal-forming technology called F3T
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Ford tells SAE International's Automotive Engineering International magazine that F3T (Ford Freeform Fabrication Technology) involves two slightly-offset styluses applying pressure to opposite sides of a sheet metal blank as they move along a prescribed path in unison across it. CNC technology and robots are used to guide and control the styluses against the sheet metal, which is clamped around its edges inside an enclosure. Read the AEI article at http://www.sae.org/mags/aei/12385.
Comments
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It's called Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) and everybody with a CNC machine is experimenting with it. The only difference is they added another stylus to the underside to control thickness and reduce punctures. Way to take credit for other's work and claim it as something your own Ford. Corporate BS again. Giants standing on the shoulders of the common man.
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impressive
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Nice!