How slashing pressing waste is reshaping automotive manufacturing

Cambridge start-up, DeepForm, has announced successful industrial proof projects and new design programmes with JLR, alongside a completed proof-of-value collaboration with Volvo Group, following successful industrial proofs that cut metal pressing trim waste from ~50% down to near 10% levels on real body-in-white components.

The work has already progressed beyond lab validation into production tooling and plant trials, including full-scale press tool testing with Whiston Industries and planned industrial press line trials through JLR’s Open Innovation programme.

There has been a long-held assumption in sheet metal forming that high trim waste is unavoidable within the automotive sector. Therefore, the results of these trials are timely considering that OEMs are under increasing pressure to reduce embodied carbon, material waste and cost, simultaneously. The Manufacturer spoke to DeepForm CEO Chris Cleaver to find out more.

Spun out of research at the University of Cambridge in 2022, DeepForm help high volume manufacturers design pressings more efficiently, via a patented fold-flow pressing process that replaces the conventional draw stage in cold pressing.

This technology enables up to 90% material utilisation, significantly reduces CO₂ emissions, maintains equivalent quality standards and integrates into existing production systems.

“The starting point when pressing a part is a flat sheet of metal,” said Chris. “This will ultimately form some kind of 3D shape, but you can’t simply bring together two tools that define the top and bottom surfaces and bring them together. The metal will naturally want to wrinkle, or even tear in some cases.”

We’re working on projects where waste accounts for 10-15% of the overall material used – instead of 45% – and that’s a massive cost saving.
Chris Cleaver, CEO, DeepForm 

To mitigate this, traditional pressing processes are typically controlled by adding extra material around the perimeter of the part, which the press will essentially grip onto as the part in the middle is being formed.

However, the problem lies in the fact that traditionally, after a product has been formed via this process, the extra perimeter material is typically trimmed away and scrapped. And, adding a small amount around the outside proportionally adds a lot of extra area.

On occasion the different grades of metal are separated, sent back to the material producer, remelted and mixed in with virgin material, but this comes at a cost. Alternatively, the discarded material can be down cycled into a different application. So reuse does happen, but clearly has associated costs and emissions.

Getting to grips with material waste

DeepForm is approaching this issue differently. Instead of having to add extra material around the outside of the pressed part, it uses 3D grips closer to the final part which then slide away. “This allows OEMs to make the parts with what we call ‘material utilisation,’” Chris continued. “Using this method, we’re working on projects where waste accounts for 10-15% of the overall material used – instead of 45% – and that’s a massive cost saving.”

Not only does this represent a significant saving in terms of material and carbon emissions, this process is also more gentle on the metal being formed. This in turn, allows OEMs to create component shapes which they previously wouldn’t have been able to make reliably, adding flexibility and efficiency into the process.

Chris added: “What’s great about our invention is that it can be implemented within a otherwise conventional looking press tool, and can be dropped simply into a current production line. So, from the manufacturer’s point of view, it’s relatively easy to adopt – particularly when starting from scratch on a new tooling project, which is what happens when an automotive manufacturer is in the process of releasing a new model. Many parts need to be retooled, and that’s one of the biggest capital costs associated with launching a new model.”

However, while implementation is, on the face of it, simple, there are still challenges that exist for DeepForm. As a new player with a slightly different business model, there are processes that need to change, and OEMs need new ways of working businesses like DeepForm into the existing supply chain.

Not only that but for a new kid on the block, there is also a question around proof for DeepForm. The cost of developing tooling within the automotive sector is high, and is critical. There is around 200 large pressings in a typical vehicle body – with each one needing to hit dimensional specs.

“Tooling needs to be reliable and produce the same result every time,” Chris added. “So, implementing a new technology within that context is somewhat risky, which is why, up to now, we’re focussing on proof of concepts with the manufacturers we’re working with to prove that it does actually work.”

Issues of waste trim

Excess waste is certainly an issue that the automotive industry has long been aware of, and there has no doubt been effort gone in to closed loop recycling and improving material utilisation, because waste represents such a big cost.

However, this can lead to design trade-offs. An OEM may have designed an ideal component shape, but making it may require a lot of extra material. Therefore, it’s common for balancing acts to ensue where designs are tweaked or changed altogether in order to improve material utilisation.

“This is certainly a lever that OEMs can pull on,” Chris added. However, acting against material utilisation improvement is the pressure and the push for releasing new models quickly. And because designs are always changing, the simplest and safest approach for an OEM – from the perspective of getting a model out on time – is to add the extra material to make sure that the process delivers the part that is required.

“Materials represent around 70-80% of the cost of a pressing. So if you can reduce material use by 40%, that generates serious cost savings, even if you can sell back the scrap for recycling.”

“As well as improving material utilisation, some OEMs are pushing towards producing more components in one ‘hit’ and avoid having to join them – either through high-pressure casting ‘megacasting’, or hot forming ‘mega stamping’ – these are exciting developments.”

Use cases

DeepForm’s technology was originally developed at the University of Cambridge, via a PhD project that was sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover. The project looked at the scale of pressings waste, which offered DeepForm a true sense of the issues involved.

As such, it followed that JLR became DeepForm’s first major collaboration partner. However, the big breakthrough in terms of funding came via the company’s work with JLR Research on its Open Innovation programme; recently set up by the automotive giant to enhance its collaboration with start-up companies and new technologies.

“We were among the first projects to be approved by the programme, which progressed to a full-scale press tool build and validation with Whiston Industries, with further industrial trials now planned under the UK-funded MOBIUS programme,” Chris added.

Materials represent around 70-80% of the cost of a pressing. So if you can reduce material use by 40%, that generates serious cost savings, even if you can sell back the scrap for recycling.
Chris Cleaver, CEO, DeepForm

As part of the evolution of this JLR-led project, DeepForm has applied for funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre, and won a £12m, three year project, which includes JLR, Altair and EMR Metal Recycling, to work on resource efficiency in car body design and manufacturing.

The work with the Volvo Group saw the OEM approach DeepForm after witnessing a presentation by one of the company’s academic founders. Similar to JLR, Volvo has a mechanism for working with start-up companies, called Camp X.

The CampX collaboration ran as a year-long proof-of-value project focused on a steel truck cab body component weighing over 5kg, demonstrating potential trimming waste reductions from 54% to 11%.

Chris added: “The next phase of the project was to work with independent toolmaker assessment, confirming feasibility for integration with existing press capacity. That went really well, and they’ve shown that it could integrate with their press line. We’re now looking at ways of funding the manufacturing of those tools.”

An additional activity during the project with Volvo was to look across the company’s full range of components to assess if this particular saving was just a one-off, or whether DeepForm’s technology could be applied to other parts and processes.

“A wider portfolio review identified more than 20 additional candidate parts with strong material and emissions savings potential,” continued Chris. “It’s not suitable for every part, but the level of potential savings is really exciting; both for us and the end user.”

In addition to the work with JLR and Volvo, DeepForm’s is working with several European OEMs on simulation projects and opportunity evaluation.

Chris continued: “We’d ultimately love to provide a drop in solution, but the reality is that press technology across automotive OEMs is subtly different. What’s most challenging for us is the different component shapes, which means that in each case, we need to adapt our approach to suit. And that’s something we’re looking at closely.”

A sizeable proportion of DeepForm’s current effort is focused on developing software solutions so that eventually, a customer will feed in the CAD designs of parts they want to make and the software will create the proposed manufacturing solutions. “That may sound simple, but it’s not easy. However, we’re making progress along those lines,” added Chris.

Next steps

The next major milestone for DeepForm is to get parts on the road, and the company has plans in place to achieve this by early next year.

Chris continued: “We will grow our team – which will include invaluable support from industry experts like ex-JLR pressing engineer Jim Harper- and the effort that we’re putting into the software products is key. Within three years, we want to be increasingly selling software that the big OEMs and pressing manufacturers can use. And that would massively scale up our impact.”

Looking further ahead, DeepForm also plan to assess broader application areas for its technology and go beyond automotive. Areas such as beverage cans and white goods manufacturing also use pressing tools, and as such, create significant waste streams in their own right which DeepForm believe could be alleviated via the use of its technology.

“We’re just starting to get traction from some big manufacturers in the beverage can space. So, we’re looking to kick-off some proof of concept activity over the next year or so,” Chris added.

DeepForm’s innovation represents a significant shift in how automotive manufacturers approach metal forming, challenging the long-standing assumption that high material waste is unavoidable. By reducing trim waste from nearly half of all material used, the company offers a compelling solution to rising pressures around cost, efficiency and sustainability.

Its fold-flow pressing technology not only lowers carbon emissions and material costs but also unlocks new design possibilities without requiring major changes to existing production systems.

While barriers remain – particularly around proving reliability at scale and integrating into established supply chains – successful collaborations with major OEMs suggest strong industry appetite.

As DeepForm continues to validate its technology in real production environments and develop scalable software tools, it is well positioned to drive broader adoption. Ultimately, its approach could play a key role in transforming manufacturing efficiency, both within the automotive sector and across other industries reliant on high-volume metal forming.