(Slide presentation). The conventional A-pillar assembly using sheet metal forming is one that contains many different parts, which requires a lot of assembly during manufacturing. Due to the high number of parts and the amount of assembly actions, the automotive industry is looking for alternative processes. Driven by the automotive industry, Corus as a steel manufacturer, sought partnership with other companies in the automotive industry in order to come up with such an alternative design. The newly proposed design is based on hydroforming technology, replacing many of the sub-assemblies. The advantages of the new process should be sought in tool cost reduction, piece cost saving and mass reduction. In order to have a feasible process, Corus has introduced a conical tubular blank with ridge. The ridge will act as buffer material during the hydroforming operation. Aside the fact that the process should be feasible, crash performance is another key factor for the new concept. Especially for convertibles, the A-pillar is crucial for a good crash performance. Not only should it withstand a rollover crash with a minimum amount of deflection, but the A-pillar will also give (torsional) stiffness to the body-in-white. The combination of crash worthiness and formability leads to an interesting conflict: on the one hand ultra-high-strength steel grades would be desired for optimum crash performance, while on the other hand lower strength steels would be more ideal for the forming process. In this presentation, the new concept for a hydroformed A-pillar is introduced. In a first phase of the research, formability investigations have been performed in practise and using finite element method. Processes that were investigated more closely are the feasibility of bending, unfolding of the ridge and hydroforming using high strength steel grades. In a second phase, the formability results have been carried over to a finite element crash analysis in order to check the influence of the forming operation on the crash results.
An innovative A-pillar concept based on hydroforming
Innovatives Konzept einer A-Säule auf Basis der Innenhochdruckumformung
2006
32 Seiten
(Folienpräsentation)
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Datenträger
Englisch
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