• 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.153-157
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• 2000

This paper presents possible defects when welded blank hydroforming and focus on wrinkling, and the die design to prevent this defect An explicit finite element code, PAM-STAMP, is used to simulate welded blank hydroforming process. The numerical results are compared to the experimental results in the aspect of deformed shape. An automobile subframe is taken as an example to carry out finite element analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.373-376
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• 2004

자동차 부품제조에 있어 비용절감과 경량화에 대한 노력은 시간이 지날수록 더욱 그 강도를 더해가고 있다. 이에 따라 tube hydroforming 공법과 고강도 소재를 결합한 부품제조 기술이 국내에서도 활기를 띄기 시작하여 각 자동차사별로 양산 적용을 앞두고 있다. 포스코는 철강소재 자동차 부품 개발에 대한 촉진 및 신수요 창출을 위하여 hydroforming사업을 시작하였으며 이미 수 종의 부품을 국내 자동차사와 공동으로 개발하여 적용을 추진하고 있다. 특히 인장강도 45kg 이상의 고강도 튜브를 이용한 hydroforming샤시 부품을 국내에서 최초로 개발하였으며 현재 시작품 제작을 완료하였다. Hydroforming 부품의 개발은 부품형상 정보를 이용 CAE를 통한 공정해석, 금형의 상세 설계 및 제작 그리고 시작품 제작의 과정을 통해 이루어지며 최종적으로 양산금형이 제작된다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 일련의 과정을 소개하고자 한다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.198-201
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• 2004

Aluminum alloys have high potential for weight reduction in automotive and other applications. But aluminum alloys have relatively low tubular hydroformability which can be enhanced by conducting the hydroforming at elevated temperatures. Hot working processes are commonly used in bulk forming such as forging and rolling, but still is rare in sheet metal forming like hydroforming. In this study hydroforming test at elevated temperatures is performed by special designed induction heating system to investigate the hydroformability of aluminum alloys. The high temperature formability characteristrics are obtained by 1?fitting forming test and circular bulging test and the effects of the process parameters such as feeding amount, internal pressure and temperatures on the tubular forming limits are mainly investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.194-197
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• 2004

In the tube hydroforming process, a tube is placed into the die cavity and the ends of the tube are sealed by fixing the axial cylinder piston into the ends. Then the tube is pressurized with a hydraulic fluid and simultaneously the axial cylinders move to feed the material into the expansion zone. Therefore, the quantitative relationship between process parameters such as internal pressure and feeding amount and hydroformabillity, is hard to establish because of their high complexity and many unknown factors. In this study, the empirical and the quantitative relationship between process parameters and hydroformabillity are analyzed by fuzzy rules. Fuzzy expert system is an advanced expert system which uses fuzzy rule and approximate reasoning. Many process parameters are converted to the quantitative relationship by use of approximate reasoning of fuzzy expert system. The comparison between experimentally measured hydroformabillity from hydroforming experiments and the predicted values by fuzzy expert system shows a good agreement.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.571-575
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• 2008

An engine cradle is a quite important structural assembly for supporting the engine, suspension and steering parts of vehicle and absorbing the vibrations during the drive and the shock in the car crash. Recently, the engine cradle having structural stiffness enough to support the surrounding parts and absorbing the shock of collision has been widely used. The hydroforming technology may cause many advantages to automotive applications in terms of better structural integrity of parts, reduction of production cost, weight reduction, material saving, reduction in the number of joining processes and improvement of reliability. We focus on increasing the durability and the dynamic performance of engine cradle. For realizing this objective, several optimization design techniques such as shape, size, and topology optimization are performed. This optimization scheme based on the sensitivity can provide distinguished performance improvement in using hydroforming.

• 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.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.15 no.2 s.83
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• pp.138-142
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• 2006

A tube hydroformability testing system was designed and manufactured to observe the forming steps and to provide arbitrary combination of internal pressure and axial fred. The forming limit diagram of an aluminum tube was obtained from the free bulge test and the T-shape forming test using this system, giving the criteria for predicting failure in the hydroforming process. The hydroformability of aluminum tube according to different conditions of a prebending process was discussed, based on the finite element analysis and the forming limit test. The effects of 2D and 3D pretending on the tube hydroforming process of an automotive trailing arm were evaluated and compared with each other.