Electromagnetic forming uses electrical energy to create a magnetic field that shapes conductive metals. It has applications in aerospace and fusion research, but is mainly used for metal pipes due to its high energy requirement and need for precise control. The process was first researched in the 1920s and has since been perfected by the aerospace industry. Its development remains largely secret due to its potential use in thermonuclear fusion research.
Electromagnetic forming is a process in which high levels of electrical energy generate an opposing magnetic field in a metallic object which is then formed according to the shape of the strongest magnetic field in the working coil generator. It is often used to form highly conductive metals such as copper and aluminum, but it can also be used to form steel parts or to join conductive and non-conductive materials, such as copper and ceramics. Because the process has such a high energy requirement and is subject to inertia effects that require precise control, it is generally only used to shrink or expand metal pipes. High-speed forming using magnetic fields also has applications in research on forming sheet metal and metal-ceramic composites used in superconductors and other components.
The process of electromagnetic formation, or EM formation, has been around since the first research by Pyotr Kapitza, a Russian physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978. He began researching the process, also known as magneforming, in 1924 using lead-acid batteries to generate a magnetic field of up to 500,000 Gauss in strength for three milliseconds of duration. Gauss is a measure of the strength of a magnetic field, and by comparison, the Earth’s magnetic field ranges from 0.3 to 0.6 Gauss. Pyotr’s research into producing magnetic fields greater than 300,000 Gauss resulted in violent explosions, and later electromagnetic training attempts shifted to the rapid discharge of high voltage capacitor banks.
In the late 1950s, electromagnetic forming had industrial patents filed on the process, and tubular parts were being shaped by it in the early 1960s. The aerospace industry has seen a use for the method, as it can form extremely uniform tubes. All major commercial aerospace manufacturing companies worldwide had their own magneforming equipment in the 1970s and were perfecting the process by the 1980s.
The development of electromagnetic forming technology has remained largely secret, as it has applications in thermonuclear fusion research. A practical fusion reactor would produce no nuclear waste, have no chance of fusing, and could run on deuterium fuel extracted from seawater, so many nations are competing to be the first to perfect the process. One of the most fundamental problems with fusion research is how to contain the fusion reaction and the magnetic fields studied in electromagnetic formation could be the solution to the problem.
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