Standing at the juncture of the 2026 era, the global manufacturing industry is undergoing unprecedented profound changes. Driven by the dual carbon goals, explosive growth of new energy vehicles, and deep evolution of Industry 4.0, the metal forming industry, as the cornerstone of modern industry, is accelerating its transition from traditional manufacturing to "smart manufacturing". Lightweight, high-strength, high-precision, flexible, and green low-carbon have become irreversible industry trends. Of particular note is that as the core representative of the new generation of forming equipment, the application of servo presses has significantly increased from 2025 to early 2026. According to the latest research data from our magazine, orders for servo presses from mainstream manufacturers have shown explosive growth from single digits in the past to double or even triple digits. This phenomenon signifies that the demand for high-precision, high flexibility, and low-energy equipment in the metal forming industry has reached a critical point, fully ushering in the era of servo technology. This article will provide a panoramic scan of the fourteen core cutting-edge technologies in the current metal forming field, from flexible moldless forming to high-strength material hot forming, from precision manufacturing in the new energy track to process innovation in traditional components. It will also delve into the challenges and opportunities brought by automation, machine vision, and AI technologies to the industry, providing a detailed roadmap for the development of metal forming intelligent manufacturing in 2026 for practitioners. Flexibility and Mold free Forming - Breaking the shackles of traditional molds. In fields such as aerospace, rail transportation, and medical equipment, products often exhibit characteristics of "small batches, multiple varieties, and complex surfaces". The high mold cost and long development cycle of traditional stamping technology have become bottlenecks restricting innovation. In this context, flexible forming and moldless forming technologies have entered a golden period of development. Multi point forming technology for metal sheets: the "universal mold" for three-dimensional surfaces. Multi point forming technology for metal sheets is known as the "black technology" in the field of sheet metal processing. The core principle is to abandon the traditional integral rigid mold and instead use hundreds or thousands of small punch heads that can freely and accurately adjust their height, forming two "punch arrays" on top and bottom. Through a computer numerical control system, the height and angle of these punches can be freely adjusted to instantly "assemble" a temporary, arbitrarily shaped 3D smooth surface mold, sandwiching the metal sheet in the middle to press out the desired shape. This technology is currently mainly applicable to plates with a thickness between 0.5 millimeters and 6 millimeters (most commonly 1-4 millimeters).
What metal forming technologies are worth paying attention to in 2026
2026 04/10