Deep Draw

The basis for nearly all of ZERO’s aluminum fabrication is a deep draw process so unique that it is often referred to as the "ZERO Method". First, a sheet of aluminum, known as a blank, is gripped between a pressure pad and a draw ring. The aluminum blank is then drawn using hundreds of tons of pressure over a die called a punch. This actually rearranges the aluminum's molecular structure in a way that eliminates any wrinkling or distortion in the finished surface.

The machine that performs this deep draw process is called a press. It is a computer-controlled machine that can exert up to 440 tons of pressure while drawing or shaping in fractions of time known as milliseconds. This technology is state-of-the-art, as is the production and maintenance of the tooling used to form each side of the shell. Once an aluminum shell is drawn, a second draw is needed to get the shell to its final depth and to place the double beads in the aluminum if it is to become a carrying case.