• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.83-86
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• 2008

In this study, friction test was proposed to obtain coefficient of friction between tube and die in guide zone of tube hydroforming and friction coefficients were evaluated at different materials, viscosity of lubricants and internal pressures. For this study, STKM11A and SUS tubes were prepared. The tube was expanded by an internal pressure against the tool wall. By pushing the tube through the tool, a friction force at the contact surface between the tube and the tool occurs From the recorded axial feeding forces, the friction coefficients between tube and die at the guide zone in tubular hydroforming can be estimated. The effects of the various internal pressures, viscosity of lubricants, tube materials, tube size and die coating on the friction forces and friction coefficients are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.359-362
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• 2008

In this study, friction test was proposed to obtain coefficient of friction between tube and die in expansion zone of tube hydroforming and friction coefficients were evaluated at different materials, viscosity of lubricants and internal pressures. For this study, STKM11A and SUS tubes were prepared. The tube was expanded by an internal pressure against the tool wall. The tube was expanded by an internal pressure against the tool wall. By pushing the tube through the tool, a friction force at the contact surface between the tube and the tool occurs. From the measured geometries and FE analysis, the friction coefficients between tube and die at the expansion zone in tubular hydroforming can be estimated. The effects of the various internal pressures, viscosity of lubricants, tube materials and tube thickness on friction coefficients are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.233-236
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• 2003

A bumper comprises a bumper face, a bumper beam for distributing the load from the impacts applied to the bumper face and reinforcing the bumper, an absorber member interposed between the bumper face and the bumper beam, and a pair of bumper stays which secure the bumper beam to the vehicle body. A conventional bumper stay structure is assembled into several stamped parts, so several processes are needed and the structure is complicated. In this study the bumper stay is applied to the tubular hydroforming which is known to have several advantages such as the reduction of the number of the process and the part weight. The thickness distribution of the tube after hydroforming and the internal energy at the event of the a compression are mainly considered to evaluate the hydro-formability and energy absorption performance.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.481-485
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• 2008

The subframe type rear suspension consisting of a side member and a front/rear cross member is widely used in a medium car and full car. In the small car case, the beam of tubular type without independent suspension system is used to reduce manufacturing cost. In this study, a subframe type rear suspension by hydroforming has been developed. In designing suspension, a driving stability and durability should be considered as an important factor for the performance improvement, respectively. Thus, we focus on increasing the stiffness of suspension and decreasing the maximum stress affecting a durability cycle life. Several optimization design techniques such as shape, size, and topology optimization are implemented to meet these requirements. The shapes of rear suspension obtained from optimization are formed by using hydroforming process. Through commercial software based on the finite element, the superiority of this design method is demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.27-31
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• 2004

A bumper comprises a bumper face, a bumper beam for distributing the load from the impacts applied to the bumper face and reinforcing the bumper, an absorber member interposed between the bumper face and the bumper beam, and a pair of bumper stays which secure the bumper beam to the vehicle body. A conventional bumper stay structure is assembled into several stamped parts, so several processes are needed and the structure is complicated. In this study the bumper stay is applied to the tubular hydroforming which is known to have several advantages such as the reduction of the number of the process and the part weight. The thickness distribution of the tube is mainly considered to evaluate the hydro-formability and the shape of the tube is determined.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.38-42
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• 2005

A bumper comprises a bumper cover, a bumper beam for distributing the load from the impacts applied to the bumper cover and reinforcing the bumper, an absorber member interposed between the bumper cover and tile bumper beam, and a pair of bumper stays which secure the bumper beam to the vehicle body. A conventional bumper stay structure is assembled into several stamped parts, so several processes are needed and the structure is complicated. In this study the bumper stay is applied to the tubular hydroforming which is known to have several advantages such as the reduction of the number of the process and the part weight. The thickness distribution of the tube is mainly considered to evaluate the hydro-formability and the shape of the tube is determined.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.91-110
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• 2016

Tube hydroforming (THF) under pulsating hydraulic pressures is a novel technique that applies pulsating hydraulic pressures that are periodically increased to deform tubular materials. The deformation behaviours of tubes in pulsating THF may differ compared to those in conventional non-pulsating THF due to the pulsating hydraulic pressures. The equivalent stress-strain relationship of metal materials is an ideal way to describe the deformation behaviours of the materials in plastic deformation. In this paper, the equivalent stress-strain relationships of SS304 tubes in pulsating hydroforming are determined based on experiments and simulation of free hydraulic bulging (FHB), and compared with those of SS304 tubes in non-pulsating THF and uniaxial tensile tests (UTT). The effect of the pulsation parameters, including amplitude and frequency, on the equivalent stress-strain relationships is investigated to reveal the plastic deformation behaviours of tubes in pulsating hydroforming. The results show that the deformation behaviours of tubes in pulsating hydroforming can be well described by the equivalent stress-stain relationship obtained by the proposed method. The amplitude and frequency of pulsating hydraulic pressure have distinct effects on the equivalent stress-strain relationships-the equivalent stress becomes augmented and the formability is enhanced with the increase of the pulsation amplitude and frequency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.226-229
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• 2006

Process design has been performed for the warm hydroforming of light weight alloy tubes. For the heating of tubes, specially designed induction heating system has been adopted to ensure rapid heating of tubes. The induction heating system uses 30kHz frequency induction coil in order to concentrate the energy in the tube and prevent the energy loss. But the induced heat by the integrated heating system, consisting of induction coil, tube, pressure oil and dies, was normally not equally distributed over the length and circumference of the tube specimen, and consequent temperature distribution was non-uniform. So additional heating element has been inserted into the inside of the tube to maintain the forming temperature and reduce temperature drop due to heat loss to the molds. And for that heat loss, a heat insulation system has also been installed. The drop in flow stress at elevated temperatures results in lower internal pressure for hydroforming and lower clamping forces. The proposed warm hydroforming process has been successfully implemented when applying 6061 aluminum extruded tubes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.205-208
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• 2008

Generally, there are several types in rear suspension. The rear suspension of subframe type consisting of side member and front/rear cross member is widely used in a medium car and full car. In the small car case, the beam of tubular type without independent suspension system is used to reduce manufacturing cost. The optimized rear suspension of subframe type using hydroforming method has been developed in this study. In designing suspension, the driving stability and durability performance should be considered as an important factor. The stability is related to dynamic frequency and durability is connected with stress analysis of structure. We focus on increasing the stiffness of suspension and decreasing the maximum stress relating to durability cycle life. For making use of the merits of hydroforming which is possible to make the bead, tube expansion, and feeding in desiring position, several optimization design techniques such as shape, size, and topology optimization are proposed. This optimization scheme based on the sensitivity can provide distinguished performance improvement in using hydroforming. Through commercial software based on the finite element, the superiority of this design method is demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.10a
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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.