HOT MACHINING: A MEANS OF LOWER COST TURNING AND MILLING OF HARD STEELS AND The Electroforming Process: Electroforming is a highly specialized process for fabricating a metal part by electrode position in a plating bath over a base form or mandrel which is subsequently removed. The electroforming manufacturing method generates an exact copy via replication in metal (typically nickel or copper) of a master mandrel . Specific benefits of electroforming are low unit costs, exact atomic scale repeatability and excellent process control for quality. Often times the design engineer will find electroforming is preferred for many applications requiring a complex true geometric shape form factor, thin walls, and high repeatability. The process is additive in that the geometry of the desired part is accomplished by deposition of metal instead of removal of material as in typical machine tooling. This mandrel is often three-dimensional, as in the case of a ref
