Peen forming — a look under the surface

Controlled shot peening is widely accepted in the aerospace industry for fatigue life enhancement of critical aeroengine and airframe components. Less well known and little understood by many production engineers is the associated process of “peen forming”. This uses the basic principle of shot peening to form or shape curved sheet metal geometries which would be difficult to create with conventional methods such as die bending, stretch‐forming or rolling. It is particularly cost effective where the number of components involved is too small to justify expensive mass production processes.