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

小行星9522774 汽车行业一直在寻求在不影响安全性的情况下减轻车辆重量的方法，以提高燃油效率并增加有效载荷能力。 钢铁占车辆总重量的大部分。 密度小于钢的一半的铝合金具有显著降低车辆重量的潜力。 航空航天工业在使用铝方面已经有相当丰富的经验。 将这种经验转化为汽车工业，开发了一种称为空间框架的新车身设计。 铝合金被挤压成管，这些管被组装成空间框架。 这些冷成型管所需的尺寸公差很高，以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横截面的变形。 目前的方法是内部加压管和试验和错误达到最佳的制造工艺。 在这项研究中，开发一个成形模型，以达到最小变形加载路径（压力-张力-曲率）的可行性将进行评估。 将对模型进行有限的实验验证。 研究结果为铝管拉形过程的闭环控制奠定了基础。 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，同时带来许多好处。 环境效益是减少排放的一个主要因素，沿着降低消费者的车辆运营成本。 虽然该行业已朝着这一目标不断改进，但用铝替代钢有可能大大减轻车辆重量，同时提高燃油效率。 这项合作的工业/大学研究正在寻求最佳的制造工艺，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.