• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.402-408
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• 2003

Currently tube hydroforming has many studies and applications in manufacturing industry, especially in automotive industry. But tube hydroforming was applied to the automotive component with simple shape. So the manufacturer and the researcher proposed additional processes to form the automotive component with complex shape. It is prebending and preforming. Prebending is to crush bend or rotary draw bend a tubular blank into a shape that facilitates placement into the next forming tool. Preforming is where the prebent tube is crushed into a shape that facilitates placement into the final forming tool. This paper analyzed and compared to the tube hydroforming process to using of general and preformed bending tube, also explained the importance of tube bending and preforming process. The explicit finite element program PAM-STAMP$\^$TM/ was used to simulate the tube hydroforming operations.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.143-150
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to investigate an innovative hydroforming process for the cost-effective manufacturing of double layered tube with circumferentially corrugated patterns. Conventional double pipe heat exchanger has relatively poor heat transfer efficiency because of the limited contact area resulting from the concentrically arranged simple cylindrical structure. As a promising alternative to enhance heat transfer efficiency, double layered tube with corrugated internal pattern was considered in this study. To fabricate corrugated inner tube, innovative tube hydroforming system was developed. The customized loading paths were established using the simulated forming pressure and contracting stroke at various bar diameters. Experimentally obtained cross-sectional profiles were analyzed to evaluate the reliability and applicability of the hydroformed tube with various patterns. The results demonstrate that the proposed hydroforming process can be a feasible alternative for manufacturing high-performance double-tube heat exchangers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.149-152
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• 2000

By using a three-dimensional finite element program HydroFORM-3D based on a rigid-plastic model, the hydroforming process for automobile subfrmae is analyzed in this study. The goal of this study is to accomplish preform design and determine the level of internal pressure for producing final hydroformed subframe component. Prior to hydroforming, the initial tube blank must be bent to the approximate centerline of the final part to enable the tube to be placed in the die cavity, After then, a preforming operation like stamping is carried out to the prebent tube. Finally, hydroforming process is performed to the preformed tube to get the final production. And through ductile fracture theory, the failure, bursting, is predicted during hydroforming process for tube blank with different diameter.

• 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.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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• 1999.03b
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• pp.39-44
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• 1999

Hydroforming is a forming process enabling circular metal tubes to be produced in complex cross sections along curved axial paths With the availability of advanced machine design and control They offer advantages over stamped sheet metal in lower tooling cost and structural mass The technology is relatively new so that there is no large knowledge base to assist the fundamentals of tube hydroforming technology. The purpose of this paper is found that adaptive bending condition and contact condition for bended part has uniform thickness distribution.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.833-838
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• 2007

In tube hydroforming process, several defective products could be obtained such as bursting, wrinkling, folding, buckling. Because, especially, bursting is most frequently occurred failure among the well known failures, it is mostly important to predict the onset of bursting failure on tube hydroforming process. For most sheet metal forming processes, strain based forming limit diagram(FLD) is used often as a criteria to estimate the possibility of onset of the failures proposed above. However, FLD has a shortcoming that it is dependent on strain path while stress based diagram is independent on strain history. Generally, tube hydroforming consists of three main processes such as pre-bending, pre-forming, and hydroforming and it means that the strain histories of final products are nonlinear. Therefore, forming limit stress diagram(FLSD) is more suitable to predict forming limit for hydroforming parts. In this study, FLSD is applied to estimate bursting failure for an engine cradle of an automobile part. Consequently, it is proved that application of FLSD to predict forming limit is available for tube hydroforming parts.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.475-481
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• 2002

Tube hydroforming is a relatively new technology in comparison with conventional stamping process. Thus, there is no large knowledge base to assist the product and process designers, especially from the friction point of view. This paper covers the topic of friction and lubrication with regard to tube hydroforming. It presents the fact that frictional characteristic can have an effect on the formability of specific components. The presented concept describes the equipment which is required to determine the friction coefficient. Some example results of the friction and bulge test are shown.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.317-322
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• 2014

Bursting during tube hydroforming is preceded by localized necking. The retardation of the initiation of necking is a means to enhance hydroformability. Since high strain gradients occur at the necking sites, a decrease in local strain gradients is an effective way to retard the initiation of necking. In the current study, the expansion at potential necking sites was intentionally restricted in order to reduce the strain gradient at potential necking sites. From the strain distribution obtained from FEM, it is possible to determine strain concentrated zones, which are the potential necking sites. Prior to the hydroforming of a trailing arm, an incompressible material(such as lead) is attached to the tube where the strain-concentrated zone would contact the die. Due to the incompressibility of lead, the tube expansion is locally restricted, and the resultant strain extends to adjacent regions of the tube during hydroforming. After the first stage of hydroforming, the lead is removed from the tube, and the hydroforming continues to the final targeted shape without any local restriction. This method was successfully used to fabricate a complex shaped automotive trailing arm that had previously failed during traditional hydroforming fabrication.

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