This has my gears turning wondering what other ultrasonic “lubrication” applications might be possible. Potentially a whole world of industrial and mechanical improvements.
The most interesting one I came across was a cutting tool [1]. Have you ever noticed that if you wiggle a box cutter while pushing that it tends to lock up less? This is pretty much that except high frequency.
I'd think that the pressure in these forming operations would be too great for the ultrasonics to really matter, but apparently not. If they can scale it up to things like extrusions it could be a big deal.
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hanboost/hanboost-c1-ul...