• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.534-542
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• 2001

Tubular hydroforming has attracted increased attention in the automotive industry recently. In this study, a professional finite element program for analysis and design of tube hydroforming processes, has been developed, called HydroFORM-3D, which is based on a rigid-plastic model. With the developed program HydroFORM-3D, the hydroforming process for an automobile lower arm is analyzed and designed. The manufacturing process for a lower arm consists of tube bending, preforming, and final hydroforming. To accomplish successful hydroforming process design, thorough investigation on proper combination of process parameters such as internal hydraulic pressure, axial feeding, and tool geometry is required. This paper describes the influences of forming conditions on the hydroforming of a lower arm by using simulation to predict strain and tube shape during bending, preforming, and final hydroforming processes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.40-43
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• 2001

The use ef sheet material for the hydroforming of a closed hollow body out of two sheet metal blanks is a new class of hydroforming process. By using a three-dimensional finite element program, called HydroFORM-3D, the hydroforming process of sheet metal pairs is analyzed. Also the comparison of conventional deep-drawing and hydroforming process was conducted. The simulation has concentrated on the influences of the various forming conditions, such as the unwelded or welded sheet metal pairs and friction condition, on the hydroforming process. This computational approach can prevent time-consuming trial-and-error in designing the expensive die sets and hydroforming process of sheet metal pairs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.255-261
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• 2000

Tube bending is one of the conventional manufacturing process. Recently, tube bending was highlighted in automotive industry by hydroforming. Tube hydroforming process is divided into pre-bending process and hydroforming process. It's initial state is very important in die cavity of first hydroforming process. So tube bending is important factor of the hydroforming process. In this paper, two pre-bending simulations, by a rotary draw bending machine and a bend die. This paper presents the simulation results in pre-bending process that is used to form an automotive part, tie-bar.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.615-623
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• 2000

The industrial application of hydroforming has a great potential in saying cost and achieving dimensional accuracy in automotive industry presently. The aim of the following article is to investigate the effect of process parameters on hydroformed part. Firstly, we have to investigate the change of mechanical properties for sheet and pipe material according to various radius/thickness ratio(r/t). The change of mechanical properties affects the yield stress more than the total elongation. Increase of yield stress for pipe has a bad influence on formability of hydroforming. Among the roll-forming process, the sizing process didn't change mechanical properties. The process parameters such as the initial pressure, mandrel shape and friction have seriously influenced on formability of hydroforming. Therefore we need to check formability of given material through the FE analysis in the beginning stage of process design and the predicted hydroforming process parameters ate generally a good starting point for the prototype tryout stage. The results of pretending, hydroforming analysis using FE model are good agreement with experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.50-53
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• 2001

Hydroforming process has become an effective manufacturing process because it can be adaptable to forming of complex structural components. Tube hydroforming has been successfully developed in the real industrial field by many researchers. However, there still remains the constraint about shape which can be manufactured by tube hydroforming. In order to improve this constraint of shape and formability of conventional sheet metal forming, hydroforming process of sheet metal pairs becomes an important technology. In the present work, the finite element analysis of hydroforming process of sheet metal pairs is presented. After basic study about experimental parameters based on numerical analysis, hydroforming process of sheet metal pairs is developed which uses hydraulic pressure as a main forming source.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2012

Hydroforming has attracted the attention of manufacturing industries for vehicles and transportation systems. A wide range of products such as subframes, camshafts, radiator frames, axles and crankshafts are made by the hydroforming process. Hydroformed parts often need to be structurally joined to other components during assembly. Therefore it is useful if the hydroformed automotive parts can be attached with a localized flange. In this study, a hydroforming process to produce a rectangular shape flange is proposed. FE analysis to form the flanged rectangular shape was performed by Dynaform 5.5. The hydroforming characteristics at various die aspect ratios and feeding conditions were analyzed and optimal process conditions which can avoid defects are suggested. For validation purposes, hydroforming experiments to form the flange were conducted with the optimized conditions. The results show that the flanged parts can be successfully formed with a hydroforming process without additional processing steps.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.592-597
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• 2001

An automobile lower arm has been fabricated in a prototype form by hydroforming with the aids of numerical analysis and experiments. For the numerical process design, a program called HydroFORM-3D developed here on the basis of a rigid-plastic model, has been applied to the lower arm hydroforming. The friction calculation between die and workpiece has been dealt carefully by introducing a new scheme in three-dimensional surface integration. To accomplish successful hydroforming process design, thorough investigation on proper combination of process parameters such as internal hydraulic pressure, axial feeding, and tool geometry has been performed. Results obtained from numerical simulation for a lower arm in hydroforming process are compared with a series of experiments. The comparison shows that the numerical analysis successfully provides the manufacturing information on the lower arm hydroforming, and it predicts the geometrical deformation and the thinning.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.249-256
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• 2000

Tube hydroforming is recently drawing attention of automotive industries due to its seberal advantages over conventional methods. It can produce wide range of products such as subframes, engine cradles, and exhaust manifolds with cheaper production cost by reducing overall number of processes. Tube hydroforming process is divided into prebending process and hydroforming process. Tube bending ins an important factor of the hydroforming process to enable the tube to be placed in the die cavity. This paper presents the theoretical analysis and the simulation results of the tube bending process. With some assumptions, approximate equations are derived to predict the thickness distribution on the cross section and the spring back of the bent tube. Bending simulations are carried out and compared to the analytical and experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.160-168
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• 2000

Hydroforming is a metal forming process that enables circular metal tubes to be formed in to the parts with the complex cross section along the curved axial direction. Recently this hydroforming process is largely used for the production of the automotive parts. This paper presents the results of tube bending and hydroforming simulations in cases of the varying weld line positions of the tube. Ten cases of prebending and hydroforming simulations are carried out to find the optiaml weld line position.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2010

Hydroforming is the technology that utilizes hydraulic pressure to form tube or sheet materials into desired shapes inside die cavities. Tube hydroforming provides a number of advantages over the conventional stamping process, including fewer secondary operations, weight reduction, assembly simplification, adaptability to forming of complex structural components and improved structural strength. In many case, hydroformed parts have to be structurally joined at some point. Therefore it is useful if the hydroformed automotive parts can be given a localized attachment flange. In this study for the numerical process design FE analysis was performed with DYNAFORM 5.5. Die parting angle and circumferential expansion ratio was optimized. With optimized condition, bulge and hydroforming experiments to form flange were performed. Forming characteristic at various pressure conditions was analyzed and optimized internal pressure condition was evaluated. The results show that flanged parts can be successfully produced by tube hydroforming process.