Video: FiDU technology creating lightweight, inflatable metal structures

This short video, featuring designer Oskar Zieta, details the process and design possibilities behind products developed with FiDU (Freie Innendruck Umformung – "free internal pressure forming") technology.

Zieta, a Polish designer, explains how the lightweight yet robust metal appears as a soft object yet when you touch it you realize that it is actually a hard metal.

"Working with FIDU technology is similar to carving clay," Zieta explains. "Internal pressure causes the shape to change on its own and exhibit the natural result of the distortion."

The design process involves cutting the metal elements out with a laser and welding the edges together into a three-dimensional shape. The metal can then be inflated into whatever shape is needed.

Zieta suggests a number of industries that could use the technology – he names architecture, the car industry and even in space – because of its lightweight, strong properties.

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By Rufus Thompson