• 열처리공학회지
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.172-176
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• 2005

Modern automobiles are built with a steadily increasing variety of materials and semifinished products. The traditional composition of steel sheet and cast iron is being replaced with other materials such as aluminum and magnesium. But low formability of these materials has prevented the application of the automotive components. The formability can be enhanced by conducting the warm hydroforming using induction heating device which can raise the temperature of the specimen very quickly. The specimen applied to the test is A6061, A7075 extruded tubes which belong to the age-hardenable aluminum alloys. But in the case of A6061 age hardening occurs at room temperature or at elevated temperatures before and after the forming process. In this study the effects of the heating condition such as heating time, preset temperature, holding time during die closing and forming time on the hydroformability are analyzed to evaluate the phenomena such as dynamic strain hardening and ageing hardening at high temperatures after the hydroforming process.

• 한국소성가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소성가공학회 2005년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.253-257
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• 2005

A tube hydroformability testing system was designed and fabricated so as to observe the forming process and to apply forming condition along arbitrarily pre-programmed internal pressure-axial feed path. The forming limit diagram of A6063 extruded tube, of 40.6 mm outer diameter and 2.25 mm thickness, was successfully obtained through free bulging and T-forming tests except the region of high positive minor strain. It is found that the data points marked on the FLD are mostly located near the strain paths from the finite element analysis excluding the cases of large axial feed. There exist data points even in the area beyond the uniaxial tension mode, since the reduction in thickness decreases due to the axial feed. The forming limit from T-forming test was considerably lower than that from free bulge test. It seems because the deformation is localized at the pole.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.98-103
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• 2009

The environment and energy related problem has become one of the most important global issues in recent years. One of the most effective ways of improving the fuel efficiency of automobiles is the weight reduction. In order to obtain this goal the hydroforming technology has been adapting for the high strength steel and its application is being widened. In present study, the chassis components (mainly cross members of engine cradle) simulation and development by hydroforming technology to apply high strength steel having tensile strength of 440 MPa grade is studied. In the part design stage, it requires feasibility study and process design aided by CAE (Computer Aided Design) to confirm hydroformability in details. Overall possibility of hydroformable chassis 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, performing and hydroforming. In the die design stage, all the components of prototyping tool were designed and interference with press was investigated from the point of geometry and thinning.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.45-49
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• 2010

The automotive industry has shown a growing interest in tube hydroforming during the past years. The advantages of hydroforming (less thinning, a more efficient manufacturing process, etc.) can, for instance, be combined with the high strength of extra high strength steels, which are usually less formable, to produce structural automotive components which exhibit lower weight and improved service performance. Design and production of tubular components require knowledge about tube material and forming behavior during hydroforming and how the hydroforming operation itself should be controlled. These issues are studied analytically in the present paper. In this study, the whole process of rear sub-frame parts development by tube hydroforming using AA6061 material is presented. At the part design stage, it requires feasibility study and process design aided by CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) to confirm hydroformability in details. Effects of parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and geometry shape in automotive rear sub-frame by hydroforming process were carefully investigated. Overall possibility of hydroformable rear 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 and hydroforming. In addition, all the components of prototyping tool are designed and interference with press is examined from the point of geometry and thinning.

• 한국레이저가공학회지
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.13-17
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• 2007

Electron beam weldability was investigated for 1mm thick cold rolled sheets of commercially pure grade titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Accelerating voltage of 40kV, beam current of 6mA, and weld speed of 0.8m/min was used and focal position of focused electron beam was just on the surface of workpiece. Microstructure of weld metal, the heat affected zone and base metal was observed using optical microscope. Vickers hardness was measured across the welds and the transverse tensile test was carried out. Hydroformability test was also carried out for the butt welded coupons of commercially pure grade titanium. For the electron beam welded C P Ti, the average grain size was equiaxed $\alpha(15{\sim}25{\mu}m)$ for base metal, coarse equiaxed $\alpha(80{\sim}200{\mu}m)$ for weld metal and annealed and enlarged grain($40{\sim}120{\mu}m$) for the HAZ. The vickers hardness of C P Ti was $180{\sim}200Hv$ for base metal, and $160{\sim}180Hv$ for the weld metal and the HAZ. For the electron beam welded Ti-6Al-4V alloy, the vickers hardness was 360Hv for the base metal, abd $400{\sim}425Hv$ for the weld metal and the HAZ. All the failure occurred at the base metal, when the transverse weld tensile test was carried out for both electron beam welded C P Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The formability of electron beam welded C P Ti was decreased compared with that of C P Ti base alloy.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.38-43
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• 2008

The hydroforming technology has been spreaded dramatically in automotive industry last 10 years. Itmay 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 springback, improved strength and durability and design flexibility. In this study, the whole process of rear sub-frame parts development by tube hydroforming 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 hydroformability in details. Effects of parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and geometry shape in automotive rear sub-frame by hydroforming process were carefully investigated. Overall possibility of hydroformable 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 hydroforming. In addition, all the components of prototyping tool are designed and interference with press is examined from the point of geometry and thinning.

• 한국소성가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소성가공학회 2005년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.247-250
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• 2005

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.