• 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.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2010

Hydroforming has attracted a great deal of attention in the manufacturing industries for vehicles and transportation systems. Hydroforming technology contributes to weight reduction, increased strength, improved quality and reduced tooling cost. Hydroformed automotive parts used as structure components in vehichle body frame often have to be structurally joined at some point. Therefore it is useful if the hydroformed automotive parts can be given a localized attachment flange. For a given flange shape, a parting plane for the dies is established relative to which the various surfaces of the flange shape, in cross section, have no significant reverse curvature. In this study, hydroforming process for flange forming was proposed. FE analysis to form flanged circular shape and flanged rectangular shape was preformed with Dynaform 5.5. To accomplish successful hydroforming process design, thorough investigation on proper combination of process parameters such as tool geometry and hydraulic pressure has been performed and optimized. The results show that flanged automotive parts can be successfully produced with tube hydroforming.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2004

Compared with the hydroforming technology for steel, the hydroforming technology for aluminum has not been actively investigated. Recently, the hydroforming of high strength aluminum tubes has attracted great interest because of its good strength to weight ratio. In this study, front side member (FSM) is fabricated with the hydroforming of aluminum tube and the mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy of the hydroformed FSM is investigated. For hydroforming process, extruded aluminum tubes with ribs to improve the structural rigidity are used. To ensure the mechanical properties, the aluminum tubes are T6 heat-treated before hydroforming.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.177-180
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• 2009

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 and stiffness. A hydroformed vehicle body component has an attachment flange or the like-formed as an integral part of the hydroforming process. For a given flange shape, a parting plane for the dies is established relative to which the various surfaces of the flange shape, in cross section, have no significant reverse curvature. This study shows analysis results that form the flanged tubular parts in the hydroforming. The thickness variations and defects during the hydroforming for flange forming could be analyzed by FE analysis. FE analysis was performed by LS-DYNA/Dynaform 5.5.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.402-408
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• 2003

Currently tube hydroforming has many studies and applications in manufacturing industry, especially in automotive industry. But tube hydroforming was applied to the automotive component with simple shape. So the manufacturer and the researcher proposed additional processes to form the automotive component with complex shape. It is prebending and preforming. Prebending is to crush bend or rotary draw bend a tubular blank into a shape that facilitates placement into the next forming tool. Preforming is where the prebent tube is crushed into a shape that facilitates placement into the final forming tool. This paper analyzed and compared to the tube hydroforming process to using of general and preformed bending tube, also explained the importance of tube bending and preforming process. The explicit finite element program PAM-STAMP$\^$TM/ was used to simulate the tube hydroforming operations.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.160-169
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• 2001

To predict busting failure in tubular hydroforming, the criteria for ductile fracture proposed by Oyane is combined with the finite element method. From the histories of stress and strain in each element obtained from finite element analysis, the fracture initiation site is predicted by mean of the criterion. The prediction by the ductile fracture criterion is applied to three hydroforming processes such as a tee extrusion, an automobile rear axle housing and lower am. For these products, the ductile fracture integral I is not only affected by the process parameters, but also by preforming processes. All the simulation results show the combination of the finite element analysis and the ductile fracture criteria is useful in the prediction of farming limit in hydroforming processes.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.16 no.3 s.93
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• pp.201-209
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• 2007

Generally, the forming process of suspension system parts have been considered only considered with the formability and have not been considered with the durability of suspension system. But the durability of suspension system is very important characteristic for the dynamic performance of vehicle. Therefore, the suspension system should be manufactured to consider the durability as well as the formability. This paper is about an optimum forming process design with the effect of section properties to consider the roll durability of torsion beam type suspension. In order to determine the tube hydroforming process for the satisfaction the roll durability, the stamping and hydroforming simulation by finite element method were performed. And the results from finite element analysis and roll durability examination showed the tube hydroforming process of torsion beam is optimized as satisfying the durability performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.71-74
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• 2005

In manufacturing automotive parts, such as engine cradles, frame rails, subframes, cross-members, and other parts from circular tubes, pre-bending and pre-forming operations are often required prior to the subsequent tubular hydroforming process. During some pre-forming operations, the cross section of a bent circular tube is crushed into an oval-like shape to ensure proper geometry and sufficient clearance in the hydroforming dies. For such applications, the use of oval Instead of circular tubes could be an effective means of eliminating the pre-forming step. The oval tube could also be produced with less thinning and with less strain on the outside of the bend when controlled by a booster system without the use of mandrel. Hence, the understanding of the issues that occur in the bending of oval tubes is worthy of Investigation. This paper presents parametric studies on the bending of oval tubes without a mandrel. The finite element modeling technique is used to examine the deformation characteristics for both circular and oval tubes. In the simulations, the bending process parameters of bend radius, aspect ratio of the tube ovalness, and tube wall thickness are varied. Observations are made to obtain a hoop-buckle limit diagram in terms of a non-dimensional shape degradation factor. Suggestions based upon developed criteria are made on the acceptability of bend tubes suitable for hydroforming applications without the need ofa pre-forming step or the used of a mandrel.