The manufacturing of hydraulically formed bellows is a highly specialized industry. The majority of our special process machinery and tooling is designed and built "in-house" by experienced engineers and technicians. We invite you to take an on-line tour of our bellows manufactuing process...
		We begin with a coiled flat strip of raw metal as shown.
		The raw metal is fed into a press which blanks and deep draws the material into a cup shape.
		A series of secondary deep draws gradually reduces the diameter and wall thickness of the tube. There may be many draws to achieve the right length and thickness. Between draws, the tube is cleaned and annealed.
		While drawing the tube, we carefully monitor grain size, microfinish and wall thickness. The final tube may be trimmed to length, and the closed end may be flattened or embossed to provide a special configuration.
		The bellows-forming process is performed on specially designed machinery, unique to our industry. The finished tube is placed, horizontally, into a set of mechanically spaced movable dies, called forming plates. The forming plates close aroung the tube, and high pressure water is injected. This causes the tube to swell in diameter between the forming plates. At a preset pressure, the spacers withdraw allowing a hydraulic ram to move the forming plates along the axis of the tube; this causes all of the convolutions of the bellows to be formed in one continuous motion.
		Secondary operations, such as trimming, cleaning and heat treating are performed as required to meet configuration and performance characteristics.
		The bellow is compressed in preparation for assembly. Each phase of our manufacturing process, from cup forming to final assembly, is closely monitored to assure product quality.
		Cliflex bellows can be shipped with a number of different end types. We can use parts like these to create finished assemblies as well.
		The final result is a bellows assembly custom designed and carefully fabricated to meet your exact requirements.