The effects of the surface defects on the hydroformability of extruded aluminum tubes

알루미늄 압출 관재의 표면 결함이 하이드로포밍 성형에 미치는 영향도에 관한 연구

The need for improved fuel efficiency, weight reduction has motivated the automotive industry to focus on aluminum alloys as a replacement for steel-based alloy. To cope with the needs for high structural rigidity with low weight, it is forecasted that substantial amount of cast components will be replaced by tubular parts which are mainly manufactured by the extruded aluminum tubes. The extrusion process is utilized to produce tubes and hollow sections. Because there is no weld seam, the circumferential mechanical properties may be uniform and advantageous for hydroforming. However the possibility of the occurrence of a surface defect is very high, especially due to the temperature increase from forming at high pressure when it comes out of the bearing and the roughness of the bearing, which cause the surface defects such as the dies line and pick-up. And when forming a extruded aluminum tube, the free surface of the tube becomes rough with increasing plastic strain. This is well known as orange peel phenomena and has a great effect not only on the surface quality of a product but also on the forming limit. In an attempt to increase the forming limit of the tubular specimen, in the present paper, surface asperities generated during the hydroforming process are polished to eliminate the weak positions of the tube which lead to a localized necking. It is shown that the forming limit of the tube can be considerably improved by simple method of polishing the surface roughness during hydroforming. And also the extent of the crack propagation caused by dies lines generated during the extrusion process is evaluated according to the deformed shape of the tube.