A simple experimental tooling with internal pressure source used for evaluation of material formability in tube hydroforming

Abstract

Material properties have powerful impact on the tube hydroforming (THF) process and the quality of the deformed tube, so it is important to select proper materials and evaluate the material formability prior to conducting the process. A simplified and applied tooling, which has no use for any external hydraulic pressure source but internal one, was designed for charactering the material formability in THF. A pressurized-fluid supplier is automatically established to provide the internal pressure and axial load synchronously required for THF, and the ratio of the two loads is achieved by proper design of the supplier. As a stand-alone hydraulic bulging fixture, the tooling can be worked on a conventional press, even on a single action press. Free bulge forming (FBF), bulge forming with axial loading (BFAL), free and restrained bulge forming (free and fixed ends) can be fulfilled by the tooling, and furthermore, bulge forming with proportional loading to some extend can be realized. Comparative bulge forming experiments under various forming conditions were carried out with the tooling to validate this project and the results suggest that restrained conditions on the tube ends highly affect the FBF, while the ratio of the two loads dominates the BFAL.