Abstract
This paper shows some achievements at bending of extruded aluminum profiles during the extrusion process. The conventional process for the production of bent profiles involves a successive extrusion, stretching, and bending of the profiles. Conventional bending methods can not meet demands far precision and cost-effective production in some cases, due to cross sectional deformation, irregular decrease of tube wall thickness and a complication of the process design. An estimation of spring-back required for precision of the bending radius can not always be achieved by the over bending of the profile. Since the profile is hot during the bending process, the spring-back phenomenon can be avoided. This means that an additional bending process is not necessary. Consequently, flexible bending can be achieved with cost reduction and quality improvement. Experimental tests were completed to study the relationship between curvature radius of profile and position of guide on the extrusion for vehicle bumper. A7108 is applied as a billet material in order to increase strength. The overall correlation between the experimental and numerical results is good. It is therefore concluded that the present method provides an efficient means for the constant curvature extrusion process.
