Hot Gas Forming of Aluminum Alloy Tubes Using Flame Heating

Abstract

Hot metal gas forming (HMGF) is a desirable way for the automotive industry to produce complex metallic parts with poor formability, such as aluminum alloys. A simple hot gas forming method was developed to form aluminum alloy tubes using flame heating. An aluminum alloy tube was heated by a flame torch while the tube was rotated and compressed using a lathe machine and simultaneously pressurized with a constant air pressure. The effects of the internal pressure and axial feeding on expansion and wall thickness distribution were examined. The results showed that the proposed gas forming method was effective for forming aluminum alloy tubes. It was also indicated that axial feeding is a vital parameter to prevent reductions in wall thickness by supplying the material flow during the forming process.

Multi-objective Optimization of HMGF Process Parameters for Manufacturing AA6063 Stepped Tubes using FEM-RSM

“…The response surface is domeshaped shown in Figure 5b, which means that the highest tube thinning is obtained at the center of the surface. Increasing the internal pressure increases the tube thinning, while increasing the axial feeding decreases the tube thinning [10]. Figures 5c and 5d indicate that at low pressure, increasing the pressure rate has no significant effect on the die filling, while it increases the tube thinning sharply.…”

“…A friction coefficient of 0.5 was used for contact surfaces [21,22]. More details about the experiments and simulations are found in literature [10].…”

“…Mosel et al [9] described a process chain for the HMGF process to produce exhaust components made of ferritic stainless steel 1.4509. Talebi-Anaraki et al [10] used a flame heating technique for forming aluminum alloy tubes by HMGF process. Rajaee et al [11] showed that the effect of HMGF parameters on the deformation behavior is complicated, and it is necessary to obtain their optimal *Corresponding Author Institutional Email: j.hosseini@nit.ac.ir (S. J. Hosseinipour) range.…”

Vision-Based Path Guidance to Achieve Dies-Free Roller Hemming Process

“…With the inclusion of the new materials, many innovative metal forming processes have been derived. Hot/warm forming processes proposed and investigated by Maeno et al [1], Talebi-Anaraki et al [2], and Talebi-Anaraki et al [3] are innovative forming processes to solve the problems of insufficient ductility of aluminum alloys and spring-back of high-strength steels.…”

Conductive Heating during Press Hardening by Hot Metal Gas Forming for Curved Complex Part Geometries

“…Similar to the press hardening processes with sheet metal, heating can be realized in a furnace or by flames [10]. In this case, it is necessary to transfer the hot component to the forming die.…”