The tube bending technology of a hydroforming process for an automotive part

This paper presents the simulation results on prebending and hydroforming processes that are used to form an automotive part, a tie bar. Two prebending simulations, by a rotary draw bending machine and a bend die, are carried out to obtain the shape change of the cross-section and the thinning of the cube and the results are compared with each other. In prebending simulation with a rotary draw bending machine, to avoid wrinkling in compressive area of the tube, a wiper die is included. A parametric study is carried out to obtain the effect of the forming parameters such as bend radius and tube thickness. The hydroforming process is simulated considering the results of the prebending simulation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.