Abstract
A newly developed sheet metal forming process was proposed by the combination of sheet hydroforming process with multipoint tool to fabricate a variety of curved surface shells without the need of new tools for prototype development or low volume production. An experimental hydroforming setup with multipoint punch was developed and performed to prove the feasibility of this process and investigate the combination effect. A half ellipsoid shell was employed as a case to investigate the deformation procedure of sheet metal. Stress and strain distributions were given by numerical simulations to evaluate the local dimpling and geometrical error caused by discrete pins. The influence of hydraulic pressure and cover sheet thickness on the surface quality and geometrical precision were analyzed both by experimental works and numerical simulations. It was shown that the geometrical shape error can be compensated by the reconfiguration of multipoint punch, and the geometrical deviation between the deformed shape and desired one can be restricted within the permitted value. This investigation reveals that the sheet hydroforming process with multipoint tool is a potential forming method for curved surface shells with low cost, high accuracy, and flexibility.
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