• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2010

Hydroforming has attracted a great deal of attention in the manufacturing industries for vehicles and transportation systems. Hydroforming technology contributes to weight reduction, increased strength, improved quality and reduced tooling cost. Hydroformed automotive parts used as structure components in vehichle body frame often have to be structurally joined at some point. Therefore it is useful if the hydroformed automotive parts can be given a localized attachment flange. For a given flange shape, a parting plane for the dies is established relative to which the various surfaces of the flange shape, in cross section, have no significant reverse curvature. In this study, hydroforming process for flange forming was proposed. FE analysis to form flanged circular shape and flanged rectangular shape was preformed with Dynaform 5.5. To accomplish successful hydroforming process design, thorough investigation on proper combination of process parameters such as tool geometry and hydraulic pressure has been performed and optimized. The results show that flanged automotive parts can be successfully produced with tube hydroforming.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2012

Hydroforming has attracted the attention of manufacturing industries for vehicles and transportation systems. A wide range of products such as subframes, camshafts, radiator frames, axles and crankshafts are made by the hydroforming process. Hydroformed parts often need to be structurally joined to other components during assembly. Therefore it is useful if the hydroformed automotive parts can be attached with a localized flange. In this study, a hydroforming process to produce a rectangular shape flange is proposed. FE analysis to form the flanged rectangular shape was performed by Dynaform 5.5. The hydroforming characteristics at various die aspect ratios and feeding conditions were analyzed and optimal process conditions which can avoid defects are suggested. For validation purposes, hydroforming experiments to form the flange were conducted with the optimized conditions. The results show that the flanged parts can be successfully formed with a hydroforming process without additional processing steps.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.177-180
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• 2009

Tube hydroforming provides a number of advantages over the conventional stamping process, including fewer secondary operations, weight reduction, assembly simplification, adaptability to forming of complex structural components and improved structural strength and stiffness. A hydroformed vehicle body component has an attachment flange or the like-formed as an integral part of the hydroforming process. For a given flange shape, a parting plane for the dies is established relative to which the various surfaces of the flange shape, in cross section, have no significant reverse curvature. This study shows analysis results that form the flanged tubular parts in the hydroforming. The thickness variations and defects during the hydroforming for flange forming could be analyzed by FE analysis. FE analysis was performed by LS-DYNA/Dynaform 5.5.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2010

Hydroforming is the technology that utilizes hydraulic pressure to form tube or sheet materials into desired shapes inside die cavities. Tube hydroforming provides a number of advantages over the conventional stamping process, including fewer secondary operations, weight reduction, assembly simplification, adaptability to forming of complex structural components and improved structural strength. In many case, hydroformed parts have to be structurally joined at some point. Therefore it is useful if the hydroformed automotive parts can be given a localized attachment flange. In this study for the numerical process design FE analysis was performed with DYNAFORM 5.5. Die parting angle and circumferential expansion ratio was optimized. With optimized condition, bulge and hydroforming experiments to form flange were performed. Forming characteristic at various pressure conditions was analyzed and optimized internal pressure condition was evaluated. The results show that flanged parts can be successfully produced by tube hydroforming process.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.275-279
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• 2013

The tube hydroforming process has received much attention in the automotive industry because of its advantages compared to conventional manufacturing technologies. A wide range of products such as sub-frames, camshafts, radiator frames, axles and crankshafts are made by hydroforming process. The hydroformed parts often need to be structurally joined to other components during assembly. Therefore, these automotive parts need to be manufactured with a localized attachment flange. In this study, FE forming analyses of a part with a rectangular flanged shape was performed with Dynaform 5.5. Using the optimized conditions determined numerically, hydroforming experiments were performed. Then, the characterization of defects was analyzed. Finally, the accuracy of the optimized internal pressure condition as well as that of the initial ram position were evaluated. The results demonstrated that flanged parts can be successfully produced using the tube hydroforming process.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2004

Compared with the hydroforming technology for steel, the hydroforming technology for aluminum has not been actively investigated. Recently, the hydroforming of high strength aluminum tubes has attracted great interest because of its good strength to weight ratio. In this study, front side member (FSM) is fabricated with the hydroforming of aluminum tube and the mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy of the hydroformed FSM is investigated. For hydroforming process, extruded aluminum tubes with ribs to improve the structural rigidity are used. To ensure the mechanical properties, the aluminum tubes are T6 heat-treated before hydroforming.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.333-336
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• 2008

There are many different kinds of forming processes to make a tubular product such as hydroforming and tube drawing. However, we should consider a better forming process in view point of energy consumption and $CO_2$ emission to save our earth. In this paper we have conducted FEM simulations to the various forming processes for sheet and tubular products to compare their energy consumptions. One example is tubular product and the other for drawn cup. From the comparisons of total energy for hydrofroming and tube sinking processes, hydroforming is consumed more energy than tube drawing. Also the cup drawing from sheet metal and tube sinking for the cup with flange indicate that the tube sinking is better than cup drawing of sheet metal in energy consumption.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.206-209
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• 2004

In the hydroforming process the number of process can be reduced by combining pre-forming process and post-forming process such as the bending, piercing and the embedding process. Integrated studies on the embedding manufacturing technology have been performed by analyzing the deformed mode of the tubes and the optimal process parameters. In this study, a simulation model that can prove clamping force between the clamping element and tube has been investigated by FEM. The characteristics of the embedded parts, such as the shape of the screw tip, screw thread and shape of thread were investigated at various clamping element conditions.