Working alongside HFQ Technology to design and manufacture the complete press tooling and bonding assembly fixtures needed to produce a next-generation lightweight aircraft seat — demonstrating what the HFQ® hot forming process can achieve in aerospace.
CLIENT: HFQ Technology
SECTOR: Aerospace
PROGRAMME TYPE: Technology Demonstrator
SCOPE: Design & Manufacture
THE BRIEF
HFQ Technology engaged Chasestead to design and manufacture the tooling required to produce a prototype aircraft seat structure using their HFQ® hot forming process. The programme was a technology demonstrator — proving that the HFQ® process could deliver the complex geometry, tight tolerances and weight savings demanded by the aerospace sector in a real-world seat application.
Chasestead’s remit covered everything from press tooling through to the bonding assembly fixtures needed to bring the seat together — a complete end-to-end tooling package, designed and built in-house.
ABOUT HFQ® TECHNOLOGY HFQ® (Hot Form Quench) heats high-strength aluminium sheet to a solution heat treatment temperature, forms it in a press, and quenches it simultaneously. The result is a component with exceptional strength, complex geometry, and virtually no springback — saving 20–50% weight over equivalent steel or cold-stamped aluminium designs.
THE HFQ® PROCESS & WHAT IT DEMANDS OF TOOLING
Because HFQ® forms aluminium at elevated temperatures, the press tooling must withstand both the thermal and mechanical demands of the process — managing heat transfer during the quench phase while forming the component to the accuracy the aerospace application requires. This places very different demands on tooling design compared to conventional cold-stamping, and requires close understanding of how the aluminium behaves at temperature.
Tooling for hot forming is not simply heavier cold-stamping tooling — it has to be designed around the thermal process as much as the geometry of the part.
The bonding assembly fixtures present a separate challenge: once the individual formed components are produced, they must be held precisely in relation to one another while structural adhesive cures. Any movement during this phase compromises the geometry of the finished seat structure. The fixtures therefore need to be both dimensionally accurate and robust enough to maintain that accuracy through repeated assembly cycles.
WHAT WE DESIGNED & BUILT
01 Press Tooling — Design
Chasestead designed the press tooling from scratch, working to the seat component geometry and the thermal requirements of the HFQ® process. Tool steel selection, cooling channel design, and surface specification were all developed to suit hot forming conditions and to achieve the dimensional accuracy the aerospace application demanded.
02 Press Tooling — Manufacture
The press tools were machined and finished in-house to close tolerances, with surfaces prepared to the standard required for HFQ® forming. Each tool was checked dimensionally before sign-off and despatch to HFQ Technology’s pressing facility.
03 Bonding Assembly Fixtures — Design
With the formed components defined, Chasestead designed the bonding assembly fixtures to locate and hold each part accurately during adhesive cure. The fixture design accounted for access requirements during the bonding process and the need to demount the finished assembly cleanly without disturbing the bond.
04 Bonding Assembly Fixtures — Manufacture
The assembly fixtures were built and verified against the seat geometry, ensuring every locating feature held its position to the tolerances required. The fixtures were designed for repeatability — capable of producing consistent assemblies across multiple build cycles as the demonstrator programme progressed.
THE OUTCOME
The complete tooling package — press tools and bonding assembly fixtures — was delivered to HFQ Technology, enabling the production of the aircraft seat demonstrator. The tooling performed as designed, producing formed components to the required geometry and supporting the bonded assembly of the seat structure.
For Chasestead, the project represents a significant expansion of capability — designing and building tooling not just for the geometry of a part, but for the specific demands of the process being used to make it. It is also a step into the aerospace sector, where the combination of lightweight materials, structural bonding, and tight dimensional control is central to how the industry is evolving.
KEY OUTCOMES:
Press tooling and bonding assembly fixtures designed and manufactured end-to-end by Chasestead.
Tooling designed specifically around the thermal and mechanical demands of hot form quench.
All tooling manufactured and verified to the dimensional tolerances required by an aerospace structural application.
Bonding fixtures designed for repeatability, supporting multiple assembly cycles throughout the demonstrator programme.
