• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.9
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2018

Hydro-forming technology has spread dramatically throughout automotive industry over the last 20 years. This technology has many advantages for automotive applications in terms of better structural integrity of the parts, lower cost from fewer parts, material savings, weight reduction, lower springback, improved strength, durability, and design flexibility. In this study, various simulation technologies were developed to investigate the formability of hydro-forming components. Through this technology, to establish the effective forming process for appropriate components design, the bending process, pre-forming process, die closing process, etc. were considered for good forming. This paper proposes the forming amount, section length (corresponding to the hydro-forming press capacity), and minimum curvature (curvature effect evaluation according to the hydro-forming pressure) among the considerations in the design of the hydro-forming part. In addition, a design method is proposed for hydro-forming molding by carrying out cross section analysis of a real sub-frame part for automobiles. The effects of pre-bending, axial feed, hydraulic pressure, press load, and friction among the hydro-forming process parameters were analyzed. Therefore, whether these processes are necessary factors for hydro-forming were examined.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.23-29
• /
• 2004

In this paper, a finite element formulation using dynamic-explicit time integration scheme is used for numerical analysis of Hydro-forming processes. The lumping scheme is employed for the diagonal mass matrix and dynamic explicit formulation. Hydro-forming process for auto-body panel forming is analyzed by using dynamic-explicit finite element method. Further, the simulated results of the Hydro-forming processes are shown and discussed. Its application is being increased especially in the automotive industrial area for the cost reduction, weight saving, and improvement of strength.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.1000-1009
• /
• 2008

Hydro-mechanical forming process has numerous advantages compared to those of a conventional deep drawing process such as an excellent surface quality and low costs of dies. In fact, Hydro-mechanical forming is a desirable forming process for producing complex parts in automotive body components, and it is an excellent candidate for the forming process of aluminum panels. In this research, Hydro-mechanical forming process with a cross shape punch has been studied for Al-Si-Mg alloy sheets. Finite element analysis by LS-Dyna has predicted the deep drawing depth of the aluminum sheets, and the experiment has confirmed that result. Put Abstract text here.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.86-92
• /
• 2008

Recently, the use of tubes in the manufacturing of the automobile parts has increased and therefore many automotive manufactures have tried to use hydro-forming technology. The hydro-forming technology may cause many advantages to automotive applications in terms of better structural integrity of the parts, lower cost from fewer part count, material saving, weight reduction, lower spring-back, improved strength and durability and design flexibility. In this study, the whole process of front engine cradle (or front sub-frame) parts development by tube hydro-forming using steel material having tensile strength of 440MPa grade is presented. At the part design stage, it requires feasibility study and process design aided by CAE (Computer Aided Design) to confirm hydro-formability in details. Effects of parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and geometry shape on automotive sub-frame by hydro-forming process were carefully investigated. Overall possibility of hydro-formable sub-frame parts could be examined by cross sectional analyses. Moreover, it is essential to ensure the formability of tube material on every forming step such as pre-bending, preforming and hydro-forming. At the die design stage, all the components of prototyping tools are designed and interference with press is examined from the point of geometry and thinning.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.223-230
• /
• 2002

Matched die forming technology has been used widely as a sheet metal forming method for a long time. This conventional method, however, needs a high cost and long delivery time to prepare a set of matched dies or, in many cases, several sets of dies. For more than ten years, some alternative methods using single die or non-matched dies have been developed and applied practically in various fields of industry. Elasto-forming, fluid forming, hydro-forming, and blow forming are some examples of these new methods. Recently, a dieless sheet forming technology using a reconfigurable matrix of punch elements has been developed, and started to be used in some industries such as aircraft and railroads. A new concept of dieless forming technology has also been proposed to overcome the drawback of the conventional dieless forming technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.386-390
• /
• 2003

As a trial of application of hydrostatic pressure in micro fomring, burr-free punching has been conducted by means of hydro-mechanical procedure. Even though it is in beginning stage, result of the hydro-mechanical punching is promising. Hydrostatic pressure helps delay fracture initiation and makes it possible to get clean shearing surface. Without any burr on both side of sheet, smooth holes are archived as intended. To verify the significance of hydro-mechanical punching, conventional punching is performed under similar conditions and relatively larger portion of fracture surface is detected in the punching hole. Despite the quality of sidewall is not good enough, it might be possible to make the hole shaped upright, reduce the roll-over radius and minimize the fracture surface by optimizing process parameters.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.15 no.8 s.89
• /
• pp.568-573
• /
• 2006

In order to numerically evaluate automotive hydro-formed DP-steel tubes on crash performance considering welding heat effects, the finite element simulations of crash behavior were performed for hydro-formed tubes with and without heat treatment effects. This work involves the mechanical characterization of the base material and the HAG-welded zone as well as finite element simulations of the crash test of hydro-formed tubes with welded brackets and hydro-forming of tubes. The welding heat effects on the crash performance are evaluated in efforts to improve the process optimization procedure of the engine cradle in the design stage. In particular, FEM simulations on indentations have been performed and experimentally verified for material properties of weld zone and heat affected zone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.351-352
• /
• 2008

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.241-244
• /
• 2003

The productivity of hydroforming process can be increased by combining pre-forming process and post-forming process such as the bending, piercing and the embedding process. Therefore in this study, integrated studies on the hydro-embedding technology have been performed by analyzing the deformed mode of the tubes and the optimal process parameters. In the case of the embedding test the characteristics of the embedded parts, such as the shape of the screw tip, screw thread and shape of thread were investigated at various process conditions. To measure the clamping force between the embedded part and the tube, special measuring device was used.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.410-417
• /
• 2017

Hydro-forming is being employed increasingly to realize lightweight vehicular parts. The bumper beam produced by this process weighs 30% less than the conventional products with equal stiffness. However, hydro-forming involves complex parameters to obtain the target geometry and low residual stress. Parametric studies are conducted using finite element analysis to obtain optimized process conditions. Through these numerical approaches, the internal and holding pressures and feeder forward stroke along the extruded direction are optimized to achieve low residual stress and to minimize springback. The numerical results are verified by experimental observations made by employing a three-dimensional laser scanner. The numerical and experimental results are compared in terms of the springback. Both results show similar tendencies.