• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2002

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the effect of Process parameters such as internal pressure, amount of axial feeding, and frictional condition between the die and the material on the tube hydro-formability. For carbon steel tubes(STKM 12A, STBH 410 and SPS 290), simple bulging, circular bulging and Tee-fitting tests are performed to evaluate the hydro-formability of these materials which is determined by deformation characteristics such as thickness distribution, forming height and branch dome shape. The formabilities obtained from these tests are analysed and compared with the results of the numerical simulation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1810-1815
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• 2003

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. In this study, the effect of the heat treatment on the hydro-formability has been investigated. By using the mild steel tube bulging test is performed at various heat treatment conditions to evaluate the hydro-formability.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.86-92
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• 2008

Recently, the use of tubes in the manufacturing of the automobile parts has increased and therefore many automotive manufactures have tried to use hydro-forming technology. The hydro-forming technology may 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 spring-back, improved strength and durability and design flexibility. In this study, the whole process of front engine cradle (or front sub-frame) parts development by tube hydro-forming 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 hydro-formability in details. Effects of parameters such as internal pressure, axial feeding and geometry shape on automotive sub-frame by hydro-forming process were carefully investigated. Overall possibility of hydro-formable 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 hydro-forming. At the die design stage, all the components of prototyping tools are designed and interference with press is examined from the point of geometry and thinning.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.339-339
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1-6
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• 2018

Hydro-forming technology has spread dramatically throughout automotive industry over the last 20 years. This technology has many advantages for automotive applications in terms of better structural integrity of the parts, lower cost from fewer parts, material savings, weight reduction, lower springback, improved strength, durability, and design flexibility. In this study, various simulation technologies were developed to investigate the formability of hydro-forming components. Through this technology, to establish the effective forming process for appropriate components design, the bending process, pre-forming process, die closing process, etc. were considered for good forming. This paper proposes the forming amount, section length (corresponding to the hydro-forming press capacity), and minimum curvature (curvature effect evaluation according to the hydro-forming pressure) among the considerations in the design of the hydro-forming part. In addition, a design method is proposed for hydro-forming molding by carrying out cross section analysis of a real sub-frame part for automobiles. The effects of pre-bending, axial feed, hydraulic pressure, press load, and friction among the hydro-forming process parameters were analyzed. Therefore, whether these processes are necessary factors for hydro-forming were examined.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.172-176
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• 2005

Modern automobiles are built with a steadily increasing variety of materials and semifinished products. The traditional composition of steel sheet and cast iron is being replaced with other materials such as aluminum and magnesium. But low formability of these materials has prevented the application of the automotive components. The formability can be enhanced by conducting the warm hydroforming using induction heating device which can raise the temperature of the specimen very quickly. The specimen applied to the test is A6061, A7075 extruded tubes which belong to the age-hardenable aluminum alloys. But in the case of A6061 age hardening occurs at room temperature or at elevated temperatures before and after the forming process. In this study the effects of the heating condition such as heating time, preset temperature, holding time during die closing and forming time on the hydroformability are analyzed to evaluate the phenomena such as dynamic strain hardening and ageing hardening at high temperatures after the hydroforming process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.187-190
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• 2009

Recently, automotive companies have invested in vehicle weight reduction and clean car development because of oil price rises and environmental problems. In particular, USA car makers have developed the vehicle spending 1 liter per 34km complying with PNGV(Partnership for a new generation of vehicle) and Europe car makers have developed the vehicle spending 3 liters per 100km. The USA government announced "The green car policy" in order to boost production of more fuel effective cars in 2009. According to the policy, it will be restricted to sell the car which spends more than 1 liter per 14.9km by 2020. To satisfy the current situations on automotive market, hydroforming technology has widely adapted vehicle structures such as engine cradle, chassis frame, A pillar, radiator support, etc. However, automotive companies have to consider formability and performance to improve and maximize the benefit from this technology in advance of detail design. The paper deals with one of the vehicle weight reduction methods using tube hydroforming technology and platform commonality in front suspension. FEA simulation is also introduced to evaluate hydro-formability and NVH performance at the beginning of design stage which is the best way to reduce the failure cost.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.233-236
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• 2003

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 after hydroforming and the internal energy at the event of the a compression are mainly considered to evaluate the hydro-formability and energy absorption performance.