Modern metal forming technology for industrial production

Metal forming belongs to the oldest technologies of mankind. During the first industrial revolution-18th and 19th century-a mostly experience based industrial metal forming technology developed for the first time out of centuries or even millenniums of craftsmanship tradition. It matured during two following phases of development from approximately 1920 to 1960 with the establishment of a first scientific background-plasticity theory, materials technology, experimental process analysis-and since then to today's science based economically important modern industrial metal forming technology. This third phase is characterized by the introduction of the computer which revolutionized nearly all aspects of metal forming: process analysis and optimized design. materials technology and science, process oriented tool technology, metrology and process control, modern NC machine tool concepts with flexible automation systems etc. Consequently product quality, productivity, flexibility and economy could be substantially improved. New processes ensuring high precision in the range of NSF or NNSF-processes were and are being developed thus opening new fields of application of forming processes in modern industrial production. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.