Investigation of the dynamic plastic hardening of metal thin-walled tube under liquid impact forming

In order to realize the objective of lightweight manufacturing, the forming methods of thin-walled tubes are studied in this paper. Liquid impact forming, a compound forming technique of thin-walled tube using stamping and hydroforming processes, is presented in order to reduce the forming difficulty and increase the forming efficiency. A simple experimental tooling, including stamping device and tube hydroforming apparatus is developed. Forming experiments of stamping and liquid impact forming processes in rectangular cross-section dies are performed for 304 stainless steel tubes. The results of experiments show that the liquid impact forming technology is feasible, and it will be widely applied in the future.

Abstract Liquid Impact Forming (LIF) is a new composite forming technology based on Tube Hydroforming (THF) technology, which changes the volume of mould cavity through impact load and rapidly generates internal pressure to realize tube forming. It does not need external pressure supply source, and it is low cost and high efficiency. In order to study the forming characteristics of the natural bulging area of thin-walled metal tubes under different model side lengths and different model closing velocities, the change of the cavity volume of thin-walled metal tubes under impact hydraulic bulging was firstly analyzed theoretically, and a mathematical model of internal pressure was established. Then the effects of different loading parameters on the internal pressure, bulging height and wall thickness distribution in the natural bulging area of thin-walled metal tube were studied. Finally, through the comparison of finite element simulation analysis and experiment, it was found that the deviation between the experimental results and the numerical simulation was within 5%, which verified the accuracy and reliability of LIF. It also provides a certain theoretical research and application basis for the development of LIF of metal thin-walled tube.

Abstract NICROBRAZ 50 is a low-melting, free-flowing filter metal for honeycomb structures and thin-walled tube assemblies. It has low solubility. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, and hardness. It also includes information on corrosion resistance as well as joining. Filing Code: Ni-460. Producer or source: Wall Colmonoy Corporation.

In the field of cold bending, it is necessary to use ball mandrels, especially to bend thin-walled tubes with a small radius. However, the bending process with a ball mandrel is complex and expensive, and it is easy to jam the core ball inside the tube. To solve these issues, we designed two kinds of hollow non-ball mandrel schemes with low stiffness that were suitable for the small radius bending of thin-walled tubes. We evaluated the forming quality of cold bending numerically and the influence of the hollow section length and thickness on the forming indices. Our results showed that the thickness of the hollow section has a greater influence on forming quality than the length. As the hollow section’s thickness increased, the wrinkling rate first declined by approximately 40% and then increased by above 50%. When the thickness was 11 mm in scheme 1 and 13 mm in scheme 2, the wrinkling rate reached minimum values of 1.32% and 1.50%, respectively. As the hollow section’s thickness increased, the flattening rate decreased by more than 60% and the thinning rate increased by about 40%. A multi-objective optimization of forming indices was carried out by ideal point method and grey wolf optimizer. By comparing the forming results before and after optimization, the feasibility of using the proposed hollow mandrel was proved, and the hollow mandrel scheme of standard cylinder is therefore recommended.

Motorbike shock absorbers made with a closed die employ a tube-forming process that is more sensitive than that of a solid billet, because the tube is usually too thin-walled to conserve material. During tube forming, defects such as folding and cracking occur due to unstable tube forming and abnormal material flow. It is therefore essential to understand the relationship between the appearance of defects and the number of forming steps to optimize technological parameters. Based on both finite element method (FEM) simulations and microstructural observations, we demonstrate the important role of the number and methodology of the forming steps on the material flow, defects, and metal fiber anisotropy of motorbike shock absorbers formed from a thin-walled tube. We find limits of the thickness and height ratios of the tube that must be held in order to avoid defects. Our study provides an important guide to workpiece and processing design that can improve the forming quality of products using tube forming.

A cellulose carbonaceous aerogel/MnO2 ultrathick electrode with a unique low curvature, porous carbon thin-walled tube array structure was obtained from natural wood using a simple top-down approach.