• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.223-228
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• 2005

Tube hydroforming provides a number of advantages over conventional stamping process, including fewer secondary operation, weight reduction, assembly simplification, adaptability to forming of complex structural components and improved structural strength and stiffness. It can produce wide range of products such as subframe, engine cradle, and exhaust manifold. In this study, the effect of the heat treatment conditions such as post seam annealing (PSA) and bright annealing (BA) on the ovality and hydro-formability of steel tubes has been investigated. Hydroformabilities have been estimated by the bulging heights obtained at various processing parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and heat treatment conditions. The ovality and forming height are strongly influenced by material properties after heat treatments.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.563-573
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• 2014

In hydroforming, the general technique employed to overcome the problem of die corner filling consist in increasing the maximum fluid pressure during the forming process. This technique, in other hand, leads to other difficulties such as thinning and rupturing of the final work piece. In this paper, a new technique has been suggested in order to produce a part with complete filled corners. In this approach, two moveable bushes have been used. So, the workpiece moves driven by both bushes simultaneously. In the first stage, system pressure increases until a maximum of 15 MPa, providing aninitial tube bulge. The results showed that the pressure in this stage have to be limited to 17 MPa to avoid fracture. In a second stage, bushes are moved keeping the constant initial pressure. The punches act simultaneously at the die extremities. Results show that the friction between part and die decreases during the forming process significantly. Also, by using this technique it is possible to produce a part with reasonable uniform thickness distribution. Other outcomes of applying this method are the lower pressures required to manufacture a workpiece with complete filled corners with no wrinkling.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.507-512
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• 2014

The objective of the current investigation is to establish techniques in micro pattern forming operations of polymeric circular tubes by using hydrostatic pressing. This method was developed and successfully applied to the micro pattern forming on polymeric plates. The key idea of the new technique is to pressurize multiple vacuum-packed substrate-mold stacks above the glass transition temperature of the polymeric substrates. The new process is thought to be a promising micro-pattern fabrication technique for two reasons; first, (hydro-) isostatic pressing ensures a uniform micro-pattern replicating condition regardless of the substrate area and thickness. Second, multiple curved substrates can be patterned at the same time. With the prototype forming machine for the new process, micro prismatic array patterns, 25um in height and 90 degrees in apex angle, were successfully made on the PMMA circular tubes with diameters of 5~40mm. These results show that this process can be also used in the micro pattern forming process on curved plates such as circular tube.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.306-309
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• 2007

In this study, hydroforming characteristic of the double-layered tube was investigated in the hydroforming process. The double-layered tube can be made outer surface on the stainless steel by only one processing. The free bulging test was performed to analysis optimized pressure and axial feeding amount of the double layered tubes. And the experimental results between stainless/carbon and carbon/carbon double-layered tube were compared with the forming data. Moreover analysis model that can be hydroformability and predictable forming pressure of double-layered tube was presented.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.534-542
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• 2001

Tubular hydroforming has attracted increased attention in the automotive industry recently. In this study, a professional finite element program for analysis and design of tube hydroforming processes, has been developed, called HydroFORM-3D, which is based on a rigid-plastic model. With the developed program HydroFORM-3D, the hydroforming process for an automobile lower arm is analyzed and designed. The manufacturing process for a lower arm consists of tube bending, preforming, and final hydroforming. To accomplish successful hydroforming process design, thorough investigation on proper combination of process parameters such as internal hydraulic pressure, axial feeding, and tool geometry is required. This paper describes the influences of forming conditions on the hydroforming of a lower arm by using simulation to predict strain and tube shape during bending, preforming, and final hydroforming processes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.36-39
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• 2001

Tubular hydroforming has attracted increased attention in the automotive industry recently. In this study, a professional finite element program for analysis and design of tube hydroforming processes has been developed, called HydroFORM-3D, which is based on a rigid-plastic model. With the developed program several hydroforming processes such as a tee extrusion, an automotive rear axle housing and lower arm are analyzed and designed. And also, 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 the hydroforming process could be evaluated. The pediction of the bursting failure and the plastic deformation during typical hydroforming processes shows to be reasonable so that this approach can be extended to other various tube hydroforming processes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.45-49
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• 2010

The automotive industry has shown a growing interest in tube hydroforming during the past years. The advantages of hydroforming (less thinning, a more efficient manufacturing process, etc.) can, for instance, be combined with the high strength of extra high strength steels, which are usually less formable, to produce structural automotive components which exhibit lower weight and improved service performance. Design and production of tubular components require knowledge about tube material and forming behavior during hydroforming and how the hydroforming operation itself should be controlled. These issues are studied analytically in the present paper. In this study, the whole process of rear sub-frame parts development by tube hydroforming using AA6061 material is presented. At the part design stage, it requires feasibility study and process design aided by CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) to confirm hydroformability in details. Effects of parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and geometry shape in automotive rear sub-frame by hydroforming process were carefully investigated. Overall possibility of hydroformable rear sub-frame parts could be examined by cross sectional analyses. Moreover, it is essential to ensure the formability of tube material on every forming step such as pre-bending and hydroforming. In addition, all the components of prototyping tool are designed and interference with press is examined from the point of geometry and thinning.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.19-23
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• 2005

To minimize the weld defect in manufacturing of the welded tube by using $CO_2$ laser, the monitoring of the welding quality and the seam tracking along the butt-joint lengthwise to the tube axis are studied. The longitudinal butt-joint is shaped from $60kgf/mm^2$ grade steel sheet by 2 roll bending method, and welded by the $CO_2$ laser welding system equipped with the seam tracker and plasma sensor. The laser welded tube has the thickness of 1.5mm, diameter of 105.4mm and length of 2000mm. The precise positioning of the laser beam on the butt-joint to be assembled is obtained within $200{\mu}m$ by the laser vision sensor. The artificial defects in the butt-joint are well observed by the signal of plasma intensity measured from the plasma sensor of UV wavelength range within 400nm. The developed $CO_2$ laser tube welding system has the function of the precision seam tracking and the real-time monitoring of the welding quality. In conclusion, the laser welded tube can be used for manufacturing of automobile chassis and components after hydro-forming.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.325-328
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• 2008

In recent years, developments of light weight vehicle are one of the most important issues in automotive industry. It is important to know the variations of the mechanical properties in the hydro forming process for the safe and durable design purposes. Generally, tube hydroforming process consists of three main processes such as bending, preforming, and hydroforming. It means that the strain hardening histories of final products are nonlinear. In this study, strain hardening behavior during hydroforming has been investigated by hydroforming of engine cradle as a model process. The variation of mechanical properties such as local hardness and strength were used as an index of strain hardening during respective processes. The correlationship between strength and hardness obtained from tensile test has been equivalently converted into correlation between hardness and measured strain.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.38-43
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• 2008

The hydroforming technology has been spreaded dramatically in automotive industry last 10 years. Itmay cause many advantages to automotive applications in terms of better structural integrity of the parts, lower cost from fewer part count, material saving, weight reduction, lower springback, improved strength and durability and design flexibility. In this study, the whole process of rear sub-frame parts development by tube hydroforming using steel material having tensile strength of 440MPa grade is presented. At the part design stage, it requires feasibility study and process design aided by CAE (Computer Aided Design) to confirm hydroformability in details. Effects of parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and geometry shape in automotive rear sub-frame by hydroforming process were carefully investigated. Overall possibility of hydroformable sub-frame parts could be examined by cross sectional analyses. Moreover, it is essential to ensure the formability of tube material on every forming step such as pre-bending, preforming and hydroforming. In addition, all the components of prototyping tool are designed and interference with press is examined from the point of geometry and thinning.