Ultima Forma: Lightweight electroformed cryogenic hydrogen pipes

Ultima Forma is developing lightweight liquid hydrogen pipes for the next generation of aircraft. Flexible, hermetically sealed, twin-walled vacuum pipes manufactured with a patented electroforming process are designed to offer significant weight savings over competing stainless-steel technology. Ultima Forma has demonstrated a pipe under cryogenic conditions using liquid hydrogen with support from experts at Element Digital Engineering. The testing measured vacuum integrity, validated mass per unit length and heat flux properties of the proposed solution. The demonstration provided essential data for ongoing hydrogen aircraft system development programmes and other potential use cases in liquid hydrogen systems.
