GOALI/IUCP: Stretch Forming of Aluminum Extruded Tubes for Automotive Applications

为了提高燃油效率和有效载荷能力，汽车行业一直在寻求在不影响安全性的情况下减轻汽车重量的方法。钢铁占汽车总重量的大部分。密度小于钢的一半的铝合金有可能大大降低车辆重量。航空航天工业在使用铝方面已经有相当多的经验。将这种经验应用到汽车工业中，一种新的车身设计被开发出来，称为空间框架。铝合金挤压成管子，组装成一个空间框架。这些冷成形管的尺寸公差要求很高，便于在自动化过程中组装。在弯曲薄壁管时遇到的一个问题是截面的变形。目前的方法是对管道进行内部加压，通过反复试验得出最佳的制造工艺。在本研究中，将评估开发成形模型以达到最小变形加载路径（压力-张力-曲率）的可行性。将对该模型进行有限的实验验证。如果研究成功，将为铝管拉伸成形的闭环控制奠定基础。汽车工业是整个制造业的一个非常大的部门。燃油效率的提高一直是该行业的驱动力，同时也带来了许多好处。环境效益是减少排放的一个主要因素，同时也降低了消费者的车辆运营成本。虽然汽车行业已经朝着这一目标不断改进，但用铝代替钢有可能大大减轻汽车重量，同时提高燃油效率。这项工业/大学合作研究正在寻求最优的制造工艺，使这种材料替代品成为汽车工业的一个有吸引力的选择。

9522774 Kyriakides The automotive industry is continuously seeking ways to reduce vehicle weight without compromising safety in order to increase fuel efficiency and increase payload capacity. Iron and steel account for the bulk of the total vehicle weight. Aluminum alloys with density of less than half of steel has the potential to lower vehicle weight substantially. The aerospace industry already has considerable experience in the use of aluminum. Translating that experience into automotive industry, a new body design called space frame has been developed. Aluminum alloys are extruded into tubes which are assembled into a space frame. Dimensional tolerances required on these cold formed tubes are high for ease of assembly in an automated process. One problem encountered in bending a thin walled tube is the distortion of the cross section. The current approach is to internally pressurize the tubes and by trial and error arrive at the optimum manufacturing process. In this research, the feasibility of developing a forming model to arrive at the least distortion loading path (pressure-tension-curvature) will be evaluated. Limited experimental verification of the model will be carried out. If successful, this research would lay the foundation for a closed loop control stretch forming of aluminum tubes. The automotive industry is a very large sector of the total manufacturing industry. Increase in fuel efficiency has been a driver in this industry with many concurrent benefits. Environmental benefit is one major factor with reduced emission along with lower vehicle operating cost to the consumer. While the industry has made continuous improvements towards this goal, replacement of steel by aluminum has the potential for a major reduction in vehicle weight with concurrent benefit in fuel efficiency. This cooperative industry/university research is seeking the most optimum manufacturing process to make this materials substitution an attractive option for the automotive indu stry.