Review of forging, stamping, and other solid‐phase forming processes

Abstract

Abstract In the last ten years, a considerable amount of work has been conducted on many different processes distinct from common plastics processing methods such as injection molding, extrusion, and compression molding. Perhaps the most common feature of these new techniques is that they resemble more the methods used for fabricating metallic materials in solid phase. However, there is a lack of uniform terminology. More importantly, the commercial acceptance and applicability of these processes have been slow. This review attempts to summarize the important findings of various publications and, whenever possible, to give information about potential or actual industrial applications. The purpose is to provide a brief overview of the state‐of‐the‐art of the whole technology. Advantages, disadvantages, and the need for more work are pointed out as they relate to different processes and to crystalline and amorphous materials. A few instances where material was heated beyond the melting temperature by a small amount are included in the review when the processing method was similar to solid‐phase forming.