Design and Manufacture of Low-Pressure Hydroforming Machine for Aluminum Tubes and Production of Rectangular Cross Section

Abstract

machine have been designed and fabricated and then, the low-pressure hydroforming process of aluminum tube is performed and the round section of the tube is transformed into a rectangular cross section by the hydroforming process. Also, the thickness distribution and the values of the radius of the formed corner are investigated under three different loading paths. The results show that by increasing the internal pressure, a smaller corner radius can be achieved but the thinning increases. Also, the maximum flat surface of the upper part is obtained when the upper mold is displaced after the internal pressure reaches its maximum value.