Both stock material and custom metal parts<\/a> come in a very wide range of cross-sections. Metal extrusion is one of the ways used to create these seamless tubes or intricate full profiles.<\/p>\n
The metal extrusion process was invented by Joseph Bramah<\/a> in 1797. He pushed soft metal through a die using a hand-driven plunger to form metal pipes.<\/p>\n
Metal extrusion is a forming process in which we force a metal (either hot or cold) through a die. This imparts the die shape to the extruded metal as it passes through the cavity. The material emerging from the die is known as “extrudate”.<\/p>\n
The metal endures compressive and shear stress to achieve the die shape. The nature of these forces and the elevated temperatures enable us to form materials with otherwise brittle properties<\/a>\u00a0using this process.<\/p>\n
The metal extrusion process has undergone many changes since its inception. Besides direct extrusion of final products, we use this manufacturing process to obtain a uniform material feed for additive manufacturing applications such as 3D printing. This material is then deposited layer-by-layer to create the desired product.<\/p>\n
A generic metal extrusion process consists of the following steps.<\/p>\n