Technologies

Gestamp creates automotive components for its customers through its innovation, technology and in-house talent. After the design and development phase, Gestamp manufactures these components at its 115 production plants. Its broad portfolio of metal -and other materials such as composites- part manufacturing technologies lets it work with different blank formats and materials. These processes range from state-of-the-art welding and assembly technologies to various steel stamping technologies (including the latest generation of hot stamping), composite and aluminum component manufacturing, and finishing technologies.

Hot stamping

Cold stamping

Hydroforming

Aluminum extrusion

Blank welding and assembly

Roll forming

Hot stamping

Hot stamping is a process for manufacturing high-strength metal components. It combines forming a steel sheet at high temperature with controlled cooling inside the die.

In this process, the steel sheet is heated to approximately 900 °C and then cooled in a controlled way. This transforms the material's structure and gives it very high mechanical strength.

Gestamp is one of the world leaders in this technology, with more than 100 lines worldwide. Hot stamping makes it possible to manufacture lighter components, which helps reduce vehicle weight. It also allows solutions with complex geometries and more efficient structural designs. It delivers very high strength and deformation capacity at key points of the part, which improves occupant safety in the event of a crash.

Gestamp's hot stamping expertise covers the entire value chain (die and press design), allowing it to offer new lines for larger and more complex parts.

Discover our proprietary hot stamping technologies (High-Speed Technologies)

Cold stamping

This technology makes it possible to manufacture a wide variety of parts, from small reinforcement parts to large body parts such as tailgates and body sides. At Gestamp, cold stamping presses can operate with forces of more than 1,000 tonnes, which makes it possible to stamp high-strength parts.

Hydroforming

Hydroforming is a specialized type of cold forming. It uses high-pressure fluid to shape tubes inside a die at room temperature. With this technology, Gestamp can produce complex parts with cavities that would be difficult or impossible to make with standard stamping.

Aluminum extrusion

Gestamp has advanced aluminum extrusion capabilities for developing lightweight, safe, high-performance structural components. Thanks to its process and materials innovation, the company manufactures everything from body and chassis components to battery boxes for electric vehicles. This helps reduce weight, extend driving range and make mobility more sustainable.

Blank welding and assembly

Blank welding joins two flat metal pieces to create a single product with different thicknesses or made of different types of materials. Products made with this technology are lighter and reduce the weight of the body structure. They can also be combined with any type of material for cold forming and hot stamping.

Overlap Patch

Laser welding is used to overlap the blanks before stamping. This optimizes weight, efficiency and the integrity of the safety cage in any type of crash. It is used, for example, in solutions such as Ges-Gigastamping®.

GesWire®

GesWire® is a technology patented by Gestamp for laser joining steel sheets. Welding is done in a single operation, without first removing the AlSi coating. The technology uses laser welding with filler wire, which mixes with the base material and the coating during welding. This prevents embrittlement during the subsequent hot stamping process.

Gestamp also works with the most advanced technologies for assembling complex parts. We use resistance welding, spot welding and the latest generation of proprietary technologies (G-Weld™) to assemble ultra-high-strength steels and post-formed parts, in both steel and multi-material.

G-Weld™

G-Weld™ is a high-speed laser welding technology developed by Gestamp. Its "G"-shaped pattern creates stronger, more precise and more efficient joints, because it eliminates the ablation step. It also significantly reduces manufacturing times and enables high-quality semi-visible surfaces on automotive structural components.

Roll forming

Gestamp performs several types of roll forming. The process includes automatic cutting, punching, separation and laser welding. With this range of capabilities, we can manufacture parts while optimizing material consumption.