• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.17-22
• /
• 2013

Tube hydroforming is a technology that utilizes hydraulic pressure to form a tube into desired shapes inside die cavities. Due to its advantages, such as weight reduction, increased strength, improved quality, and reduced tooling cost, single-layered tube hydroforming is widely used in industry. However in some special applications, it is necessary to produce multi-layered tubular components which have corrosion resistance, thermal resistance, conductivity, and abrasion resistance. In this study, a hollow forming process to fabricate a part from multi-layered tubes for structural purposes is proposed. To accomplish a successful hydroforming process, an analytical model that predicts optimal load path for various parameters such as tube material properties, thickness of tubes, diameter of holes and the number of holes was developed. Tubular hydroforming experiments to fabricate a hollow part were performed and the optimal loading path developed by the analytical model was successfully verified. The results show that the proposed hydroforming process can effectively produce hollow parts with multi-layered tube without defects such as wrinkling or fracture.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.60 no.1
• /
• pp.91-110
• /
• 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
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.45-48
• /
• 2006

Recently, the use of tubular hydroforming technology has seen increased usage and increased consideration for wide range of tubular automotive applications. In manufacturing hydroformed parts, bending and pre-forming operations are often required prior to the hydroforming process. Higher bending quality of bent tubes is crucial for the successful hydroforming operation because most of plastic strains and wall thinning at the extrados of bend area occur in the bending operation. Springback is also observed due to elastic recovery of tube material after bending. Proper correction of springback is required not only to well place the bent tube into a hydroforming die cavity but also to avoid pinching when the upper die is brought down to closing position. Therefore, prediction of springback at early development stage is one of the key factors to produce high quality hydroformed parts. In this study, a variety of bending experiments has been carried out to investigate springback amount under change in bending angle and material boosting. Throughout the experimental approach, springback characteristics of bent tubes are quantified according to the change in various bending parameters, and a mathematical model to predict correction amount of springback to a given bend angle is found.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.52-58
• /
• 2008

Tube hydroforming process is generally consisted with pre-bending, preforming and hydroforming processes. Among forming defects which may occur in tube hydroforming such as buckling, wrinkling and bursting, the wrinkling and bursting by local instability under excessive tensile stress mode were mainly caused by thinning phenomenon in the manufacturing process. Thus the accurate prediction and suitable evaluation of the thinning phenomenon play an important role in designing and producing the successfully hydroformed parts without any failures. In this work, the formability on hydroformed part for automobile, i.e. engine cradle, was evaluated using finite element analysis. The initial tube radius, loading path with axial feeding force and internal pressure, and preformed configuration after preforming process were considered as the dominant process parameters in total tube hydroforming process. The effects on these process parameters could be confirmed through the numerical experiments with respect to several kinds of finite element simulation conditions. The degree of enhancement on formability with each process parameters such as initial tube radius, loading path and preform configuration were also compared. Therefore, it is noted that the evaluation approach of the formability on hydroformed parts for lots of industrial fields proposed in this study will provide one of feasible methods to satisfy the increasing practical demands for the improvement of the formability in tube hydroforming processes.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2007.05a
• /
• pp.310-313
• /
• 2007

This paper covers finite element simulations to evaluate the bending limit of double pipe for tube-hydroforming. The tube-hydroforming process starts with a straight precut tube. The tube is often prebent in a rotary draw bending machine to fit the hydroforming tool. During the bending the tube undergoes significant deformation. So forming defects such as wrinkling, thinning and flattening are generated in the tube. Consequently we analyzed the effect of process parameters in rotary draw bending process and searched the optimized combination of process parameters to minimize the forming defects using orthogonal arrays. The characteristic to evaluate the effects of the process parameters is the bending angle which wrinkling is generated, we define the bending angle at that time as bending limit. Of many process parameters, the process parameters of the bending process such as gab between inner and outer tube, boosting force, dimensions of mandrel were analyzed. And we observed the deformation modes of bent double pipe at specific bending angle in each parameter combination.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.229-232
• /
• 2003

In the roll forming process, a sheet or strip of metal is continuously and progressively formed into a desired cross-sectional profile by feeding it through a series of forming roll. Accordingly, it is important to maintain the material properties of the initial sheet and deform uniformly during the roll forming. The roll forming process was estimated in consideration of some factors such as material properties, strip thickness, roll diameter, roll velocity, and the deformation of the material that influence the forming length. The hydroforming technology has been recognized as a new technique in manufacturing industry, especially in automotive industry. The formed pipe in used in hydroforming process is manufactured by the roll forming. The formability during hydroforming is very sensitive to the state of pipes which are made by roll forming. Particularly the amount of hardening during roll forming affects the formability. Therefore, it is necessary to design the optimum roll flower to reduce the local hardening. In this paper, optimum roll flower which has uniform strain distribution through sheet width was obtained by comparing strain distribution in various roll flower. Finite element analysis(FEA) is performed to estimate the strain distribution related to hardening by roll forming. A numerical analysis is carried out by SHAPE-RF.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.226-229
• /
• 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
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.318-321
• /
• 2006

In this strudy, the free-bulge test and FE analysis have been used to define the fracture criteria based on the cockroft and Latham's criterion in warm hydroforming of Al 6061 tube. Full annealing and T6 treatment for heat treatment of Al 6061 tube ware used in this study. As-extruded, full annealed and T6-treated Al 6061 seamless tubes were prepared. To evaluate the hydroformability, uni-axial tensile test and bulge test were performed between room temperature and $200^{\circ}C$. And measured flow stress was used to simulate the warm hydroforming. A commercial FEM code, DEFORM-$2D^{TM}$, was used to calculate the damage value. A forming limit based ductile fracture criteria has been proposed by the results of experimental and FE analysis. The calculated values for fracture criteria will be efficient to predict the forming limit in hydroforming for real complex shaped part.

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