Tube Drawing Process with Diameter Expansion for Effectively Reducing Thickness

Abstract

The present paper describes a tube drawing method with diameter expansion, which is herein referred to as “expansion drawing”, for effectively producing thin-walled tube. In the proposed method, the tube end is flared by pushing a plug into the tube, and the tube is then expanded by drawing the plug in the axial direction while the flared end is chucked. The forming characteristics and effectiveness of the proposed method were investigated through a series of finite element method (FEM) analyses and experiments. As a result of FEM analysis, the expansion drawing effectively reduced the tube thickness with a smaller axial load when compared with the conventional method. According to the experimental results, the thin-walled tube was produced successfully by the expansion drawing. Maximum thickness reduction ratios for a carbon steel (STKM13C) and an aluminum alloy (AA1070) were 0.15 and 0.29 when the maximum expansion ratios were 0.23 and 0.31, respectively. The above results suggest that the proposed expansion drawing method is effective for producing thin-walled tubes.

Latest Hydroforming Technology of Metallic Tubes and Sheets

“…The first group is tube hydroforming (THF) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], in which a hydraulic media and dies are used to deform a tube workpiece. The second group is tube forming [10][11][12][13][14], in which only dies are used to deform a tube workpiece. The third group is sheet hydroforming [15,16], in which dies and/or hydraulic media are used to deform a sheet workpiece.…”

“…The second group consists of manuscripts related to tube forming with dies without hydraulic media inside the tube. Kajikawa et al [10] proposed a tube expansion drawing method to effectively produce a thin-wall and large-diameter tube. Hirama et al [11] proposed a new ball spin forming equipment, which can form a reduced diameter section on the halfway point of a tube.…”

“…Kajikawa et al [10] proposed a tube expansion drawing method to effectively produce a thin-wall and large-diameter tube. In the proposed method, the tube end is flared by pushing a plug into the tube, and the tube is then expanded by drawing the plug in the axial direction while the flared end is chucked.…”

Necking limit analysis of thin wall aerosol can

“…The external inversion mode of deformation of aluminum tubes over a constant die profile was analyzed in detail by using a finite element code FORGE2 [6,7]. Kajikawa and Shohei [8] studied the Finite Element Method (FEM) analyses and experimental studies of the tube drawing process to increase the diameter of the tube and reduce the thickness as well. The maximum flaring ratio was determined to indicate the flaring limit before buckling [8].…”

“…Kajikawa and Shohei [8] studied the Finite Element Method (FEM) analyses and experimental studies of the tube drawing process to increase the diameter of the tube and reduce the thickness as well. The maximum flaring ratio was determined to indicate the flaring limit before buckling [8]. D. A. Potianikhin and B. N. Maryn [9] investigated a finite element-based analysis of aluminum alloy tubes by rigid die.…”