A Study on Al Hot Forming Using Air Bulging

Abstract

Hot tensile tests were conducted at different temperatures ranging from 20℃ to 550℃ to evaluate the mechanical properties of Al5052 seamless tubes. Such tubes can provide the technological foundation for complex forming using hot air bulging. Hot air bulging is one of the recently developed hydroforming techniques and it has some limitations in terms of cycle times. The benefits of hot air bulging are weight and cost savings through part consolidation and reduced post-forming processes such as welding and piercing. In order to extend the forming limits of Al lightweight material hot air bulging was investigated. A heated tube was placed in a heated die and sealed at the ends by sealing cylinders. The heated tube was subsequently expanded against the die cavity wall by internal pressure using air medium. The results of the current study show that axial feeding speed and air pressure have an effect on the formability of Al tubes during air bulging at elevated temperatures.