Large vulnerable openings in human cranium require a rigid anatomical reconstruction. A possible solution is the use of personalised thin titanium plates, also denoted membranes. The indirect production process, which is mainly hydroforming or casting, requires a single die, which is shaped manually or milled directly from a CAD-file. Currently, the design of membranes is mainly manual work, ev...

Tube hydroforming (THF) is ametal-forming process that uses a pressurized fluid in place of a hard tool to plastically deform a given tube into a desired shape. In addition to the internal pressure, the tubematerial is fed axially toward the die cavity. This process has various applications in the automotive, aerospace, and bicycle industries. Accurate coordination of the fluid pressure and axi...

Light-weight and high strength alloys such as Al-Mg alloys are used in order to reduce the weight of industrial components. However these materials should be formed at elevated temperatures due to their poor formability at room temperature. Hot metal gas forming is one of the high-tech forming processes that is used to solve this problem. Recent investigation on tube hydroforming showed positiv...

Light-weight and high strength alloys such as Al-Mg alloys are used in order to reduce the weight of industrial components. However these materials should be formed at elevated temperatures due to their poor formability at room temperature. Hot metal gas forming is one of the high-tech forming processes that is used to solve this problem. Recent investigation on tube hydroforming showed positiv...

Key points † Optimizing tracheal sealing is of clinical interest: fluid leakage past the tube cuff plays an important role in the pathogenesis of VAP. † Tapered shaped tube cuff offering a sealing zone with reduced folds and channels is a new strategy to minimize fluid leakage past the tracheal tube cuff. † Tracheal tube cuffs made from PVC show much more and faster fluid leakage than cuffs mad...