• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.54-57
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• 2001

Hydroforming is core production techniques for the super light weight and high safety of the vehicle body. In order to establish and understand hydroforming, the tube hydroforming simulator which could control an axial compression and high internal pressure with computer operation was developed in tube bulging. This paper presents experimental investigation for process parameters, such as Internal pressure and axial compression. In addition, the mechanical properties, such as strain hardening and energy absorption ability of hydroformed part, is discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.2253-2261
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• 2002

Recently the hydroforming technology has drawn a lot of attention because of its capability to produce high quality and light weight parts. In the present study, the tube expansion - one of the simplest hydroforming processes, has been investigated in order to understand fundamental phenomena such as deformation characteristics and effect of process parameters. As a result, the most important process parameters, which determine the state of stress at the expanded zone, were found to be pressure and die displacement. If the stress becomes equi-axial tension at the zone, necking occurs at some distance from the weld line and develops into a crack along the axial direction. Some aspects of mechanical property measurements as well as distributions of hardness and microstructure are also discussed in this paper.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.259-268
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• 2015

An optimization method for the tube hydroforming process is developed using the equivalent static loads method for non linear static response structural optimization (ESLSO). The aims of the tube hydroforming optimization are to determine the axial forces (axial feedings) and the internal pressures, and to obtain the desired shape without failures after hydroforming analysis. Therefore, the magnitude of the forces should be design variables in the optimization process. Also, some tube hydroforming optimization needs to consider the result of the thickness in nonlinear dynamic analysis as responses. However, the external forces are considered as constants and the thickness is not a response in the linear response optimization process of the original ESLSO. Thus, a new ESLSO process is proposed to overcome the difficulties and some examples are solved to validate the proposed method.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.783-788
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• 2000

Hydroforming is a method for forming circular tubes. If this technology is to be applied economically, it is essential to have knowledge of the avoidance of failure cases as well as of the behavior of the tube in the tool under the compressive stress and forces that are exerted by the machine. A finite element simulation for manufacturing of lower arm from straight tubes, using the hydroforming method, was performed to investigate the effects of varying process parameters. Explicit method is used to simulate hydroforming in many cases, but that is not included flow rule. And then it needs simulation for implicit method. It was simulated by two methods, implicit and explicit, to compare the result of the hydroforming.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.571-580
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• 1990

The study is concerned with the analysis of axisymmetric hydroforming with controlled pressure by the rigid-plastic finite element method. The finite element method is employed to obtain the detailed information including the distribution of stresses and strains and geometry changes. Experiments are carried out for hydroforming of cold-rolled steel sheets with the developed CNC hydroforming press which is pressure-controlled according to the fluid pressure vs.-stroke relationship given by the upper bound. Four types of punches are used for the experiments. The computed results are in good agreements with the experimental observation in geometric change and thickness variation. The present analysis permits the prediction of stresses, strains, geometric changes. The effects of Lankford value and workhardening exponent on thickness strains in hydroforming are also discussed. It is thus shown that the present method can be applied to the effective design of axisymmetric hydrooforming processes.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.275-279
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• 2013

The tube hydroforming process has received much attention in the automotive industry because of its advantages compared to conventional manufacturing technologies. A wide range of products such as sub-frames, camshafts, radiator frames, axles and crankshafts are made by hydroforming process. The hydroformed parts often need to be structurally joined to other components during assembly. Therefore, these automotive parts need to be manufactured with a localized attachment flange. In this study, FE forming analyses of a part with a rectangular flanged shape was performed with Dynaform 5.5. Using the optimized conditions determined numerically, hydroforming experiments were performed. Then, the characterization of defects was analyzed. Finally, the accuracy of the optimized internal pressure condition as well as that of the initial ram position were evaluated. The results demonstrated that flanged parts can be successfully produced using the tube hydroforming process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.231-236
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• 2009

Recently, The Hydroforming technology has recognized general technique in manufacture industry. Especially automotive industry, It has applied to increase strength, and decrease weight, cost and part number. The rigid axle suspension type is widely used for truck and bus in commercial vehicles due to simplicity. To develop the hydroforming rigid axle, it is necessary to estimate of the characteristics of front suspension from the design process. In this study, the characteristics estimation of the hydroforming rigid axle is preformed using Finite Element Analysis and apply to shape optimization.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.55-58
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• 2008

Hydroforming is a forming technology in which a steel tube is set in a die and formed to fit a specified shape by applying hydraulic pressure from inside the tube while also applying force in the tube axial direction (axial feed). In present study, the entire design process chain for an automotive cross-member was simulated and developed using hydroforming technology on high-strength steel. The part design stage required a feasibility study. The process was designed using computer-aided design techniques to confirm the actual hydroformability of the part in detail. The possibility of using hydroformable cross-member parts was examined using cross-sectional analyses, which were essential to ensure the formability of the tube material for each forming step, including pre-bending and hydroforming. The die design stage included all the components of a prototyping tool. Press interference was investigated in terms of geometry and thinning.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.230-235
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• 2000

By using the finite element method, the Oyane's ductile fracture integral I was calculated from the histories of stress and strain according to every element and then the forming limit of hydroforming process could be evaluated. The fracture initiation site and the forming limit fer two typical hydroforming processes, tee extrusion and bumper rail under different forming conditions are predicted in this study. For tee extrusion hydroforming process, the pressure level has significant influence on the forming limit. When the expansion area is backed by a supporter and bulged, the process would be more stable and the possibility of bursting failure is reduced. For bumper rail, the ductile fracture integral I is not only affected by the process parameters, but also by the shape of preforming blank. Due to no axial feeding on the end side of the blank, the possibility of cracking in hydroforming of the bumper rail is influenced by the friction condition more strongly than that of the tee extrusion. All the simulation results show reasonable plastic deformation, and the applications of the method could be extended to a wide range of hydroforming processes.