Hot forming and in-situ cooling of metallic articles

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a hot forming method and apparatus that can improve strength of a product via die operation. The hot forming apparatus includes a lower die on which a workpiece is placed, an upper die coupled to the lower die to press the workpiece, a holder disposed between the upper and lower dies to form an inner space of the workpiece, and a cooling unit to cool the workpiece. The hot forming method includes coupling an upper die, a lower die and a holder with a workpiece placed on the lower die, followed by pressing the workpiece to perform a hot forming operation, determining whether or not a preset time has elapsed after pressing the workpiece, and cooling the workpiece by supplying a cooling fluid around the workpiece, if the preset time has elapsed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.