Thixoforming

Okay kiddo, so Thixoforming is when we take metal like aluminum and heat it up so it becomes a mushy gooey consistency. Kind of like when you melt chocolate to make hot cocoa.

Once it's all gooey, we can put it into a mold that's the shape we want it to be. Think of playing with Play-Doh, but instead of making a snake or a ball, we're making a car part or a bicycle frame.

Then, we let the metal cool and harden back up into a solid shape. This makes it really strong and durable, like when you freeze your water bottle and the ice makes it stronger.

Thixoforming is really neat because we can make complex shapes that would be really hard to make with traditional metal forming methods. Plus, it's better for the environment because we don't waste as much metal- we use only what we need for the part we're making.