Increasing competitive pressure, declining volume-sales figures, worldwide over capacity and political pressures to reduce vehicle weight in order to lower fuel consumption are driving the automotive industry to reduce its production costs. One possible process engineering solution is the hydroforming of welded blanks. In this process, two identical blanks are welded around their perimeter and expanded into a die cavity using high internal pressure transmitted through a forming fluid. The focus of this project has been to investigate the potential for weight reduction using this process compared directly with traditional press forming. Practical tests and computer simulations have been implemented in order to investigate the hydroforming of welded blanks, hydroforming of high strength steels, the production and optimisation of computer simulation models and the fatigue properties of an in-service hydroformed component. This report details the work carried out in the final semester and reviews all previous work undertaken on the project. It also concludes the investigation into the dual-sheet hydroforming process and attempts to assess its suitability as a tool for weight and cost reduction in the automotive industry. (VDEh)
Investigation of the hydroforming process with a view to reducing weight in automobiles
Untersuchung der Hydroumformung im Hinblick auf die Gewichtseinsparung in Kraftfahrzeugen
2002
140 Seiten, 156 Bilder, 27 Tabellen
Book
English
Reducing weight in automobiles
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