Vari-Form Launches New Website
The interactive site promises can be a valuable vehicle light-weighting tool for passenger car and truck engineers.
Posted: October 26, 2015
Vari-Form Corporation (Troy, MI), an industry leader in Pressure Sequence Hydroforming, has launched a new website that promises to be a valuable vehicle light-weighting tool for passenger car and truck engineers. The new site offers quick and easy access to essential information on the company’s advanced hydroforming technologies and applications, in a user-friendly interface. The new site offers an enhanced user experience with improved navigation to the latest technical papers, technology developments and applications that can help reduce vehicle weight, improve fuel economy, and enhance structural integrity for driver and passenger safety.
Beyond faster access to information and resources, the challenge was to optimize the website architecture and design to present a large repository of hydroforming technology in a smart and practical way. The new site creates a user experience that is intuitive and precise, making the presentation of information logical, interesting, and aesthetically pleasing to visitors.
“Our intent was to make our site a more robust engineering tool; to more efficiently deliver information and education on the body structure technologies we pioneered. We know our customers’ time is valuable, so we kept them in mind as we worked on the site,” said Terry Nardone, the head of sales and business development. “This new site is designed to be a useful, easy-to-navigate resource of in-depth product information, customer support materials and the latest news from us.”
Guided by client feedback, the company created a rich digital experience for site visitors that is more visual, offering tools like animations and videos to quickly and thoroughly present engineering information. It is also more intuitive, so industry professionals can navigate easily between departments of the site: Milestones in structural automotive hydroforming explain how the technology evolved in the developing years between 1989 and today. The migration to producing rear rails, space frames, roof rails and front end structures by tubular hydroforming rather than earlier, less cost-effective, means, is described in detail.
The advent of Pressure Sequence Hydroforming (PSH), pioneered by Vari-Form, is presented in a Manufacturing department. Here, the visitor has the option to launch highly-detailed engineering animations for a comparison of PSH and high-pressure hydroforming. An interactive department on solutions/products offers automotive professionals the opportunity to explore alternatives by clicking on bodies-in-white for passenger vehicles and trucks.
An enhanced department on HIBS showcases Hydroform-Intensive Body Structures, a recently completed in-depth engineering study that shows how hydroforming achieves 11 percent piece cost reduction, 14 percent tooling cost reduction and 7 percent weight reduction compared to stamping/welding processes. These cost and weight reductions are encouraging automakers from around the globe to adopt tubular hydroforming for a variety of structural applications.
An overview of the company’s rapid globalization successes is presented in an interactive Global Locations department. At a glance, global industry professionals can see where manufacturing and engineering support are available in their region. In a little over two years, the company has grown from four locations in North America to eleven facilities around the world.
Vari-Form believes in industry continuing education, and has created two departments that help visitors stay abreast with daily improvements in PSH and HIBS. A press room offers news releases on applications and engineering developments, accessible by both journalists and industry professionals. An events department lists industry conferences and exhibitions in North America, Europe and Asia where attendees can meet company subject matter experts and see hydroforming applications face-to-face.
If a visitor wishes to take further action, the contact department offers three alternatives. There is an interactive form for email communication, as well as an email address. The department also provides a direct phone line to the customer service team. “We will continue to make improvements to our website into the future, to ensure quality communication with our customers,” added Nardone. “Our digital communication tools are key to making that happen.”
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