Development of Aluminum

Suspension Forming Process

by

Hot Air

W. Y. Kim', J. D. Park', J. D. Kim2, S. G. Jang2, S. M. Kim2, C. S. Ok2, W. J. Kim' 'Hongik University, 72-1 Mapo-Gu, Sangsu-Dong, Seoul 121-791, Koera 2DONG HEE INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD, Nam-Gu, Hwang Sung-Dong, Ulsan, 680-160, Korea Hongik: Tel: +82(2)3201468, Fax: +82(2)3256116 Donghee: Tel: +82(52)2594196, Fax: +82(52)2594197 E-mail: kimwjgwow.hongik.ac.kr
Abstract Aluminum Alloys are used for automobile components in recent years to reduce the weight of an automobile to improve environmental problems In order to apply aluminum
-

alloys
one

to

processes

have been developed. Hot-air blow forming

forming
processes

light-weight

automobile

parts,

many

metal

forming

process

is
N2GAS In-Line

of the

current study, fabrication of aluminum suspensions has been attempted using seamless aluminum tubes. On the basis of hot workability of the extruded tube and FEM simulation results, optimum condition for fabricating aluminum suspension parts by hot air forming could be determined.

receiving

recent

attention.

In the

__i |l

I.

INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Layout of the hot-air-forming experimental setup.

Reduction of carbon dioxide emission from automobile exhausts is a critical environmental issue. Fuel economy is desired to be improved and weight reduction has therefore become a major subject among automobile manufactures. Aluminum alloys are effective materials for the vehicle weight reduction. However, aluminum alloys generally have lower elongations and r-values compared to steel sheets at ambient temperatures. Thus, high temperature blow-forming has been used for production of panels [1,2]. Hot air forming of aluminum suspension also draws attention, especially in luxury vehicles, since it improves not only fuel economy but also ride qualities. Superplasticity is a characteristic of some finegrained alloys to exhibit large tensile deformation prior to fracture. This enhanced ductility, coupled with low flow stresses, allows the forming of complex shapes in sheet or tube metals using relatively low gas pressure. In this paper, we proposed a method of producing aluminum suspension parts by hot air forming using seamless 5xxx aluminum tube identified to behave quasi-superplastically at high strain rates at high temperatures.
II.

utilized in the present test was composed of the upper and lower dies, pressing units and side gas injection system. This is shown in Fig. 1. To begin with, the upper and lower dies were preheated to 793K. Then, the tube was positioned between the upper and lower dies and held there for -200 sec. before being pressed. Boron nitride in a form of liquid solution was used as lubricant. It was painted onto both sides of dies and the tube by spray. Forming was conducted immediately as N2 gas was admitted to flow from the one end of the tube. The forming temperature was monitored by a K-type thermocouple. After the forming trial, the deformed tube was sectioned and thickness was measured using a micrometer. Computer simulation was conducted to determine the pressure-time curve for the optimum condition for gas blow forming using a commercial finite-element solver Marc.
III. RESULTS OF ANALYSIS

EXPERIMENT PROCEDURES

An alloy ingot in Al-Mg system containing 0.3Cr was prepared and indirectly extruded at 673K to obtain seamless tubes with an outer diameter of 74mm. The gas forming equipment

3.1 Materials Characteristics Tensile-elongation results at 793K are shown in Fig. 2 as a function of strain rate. The largest strain to failure is -200%. Though this elongation value itself is not so impressive from viewpoint of superplatisticity, it is worth to pay attention to fact that it can be obtained in high strain rate range between 10-2 and 2x 10-'s-'. It is also interesting that the elongation tends to increase with increasing strain rate, which is opposite to the

1-4244-0427-4/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

94

Oct. 18 - Oct. 20, 2006 IFOST2006

general trend found in many ingot-processed aluminum alloys. The material characteristic of high ductility at high strain rates is very important from productivity of view, since gas-forming time can be greatly saved, allowing mass production.
200 180

5xyo+0 3Cr

160

Fig.4. The aluminum suspension successfully fabricated by hot air forming..

0 140

.2/ 120
W 100

80
10

10-,
Strain

10O

10-'

10

Rate(s-')

Fig.2. Elongation-to-failure test results at 793K.

Comparison in thickness distribution between the FEM and experimental results around periphery of the cross section area (red line; Fig. 4) is shown in Fig. 5. It is apparent that the thickness predicted by the simulation reasonably well agrees with the experimental result. Based on evaluation of the post gas-forming material properties and thickness distribution, it could be concluded that the deformed tube satisfies the structural criteria for automobile suspension.

3.2 FEM Simulation 6.5 Simulation| The optimized pressure profile for a target strain rate of 6.0 Experiment| Ix10-2s-1 calculated by the FEM simulation is shown in Fig. 3. 5.5 The maximum gas pressure was set to 70 bar to reflect the 5.0 45 experimental situation. At the given strain rate, the pressure E~ en 4.0 increases up to 100 sec and then becomes saturated to 70 bar. 4.5 -en 3.5 3.0 According to the strain rate-time history plot at local positions 2.5 in the deforming body, where large deformation takes place, 2.0 1.5 predicated the FEM simulation, the maximum strain rate is 1.0_ maintained to be less 7x10-3s-' during the entire forming 0.5 O.O process. The pressure-time curve shown in Fig. 3 gives 200 250 50 100 150 important information useful in gas blow forming test. In the Arc length(mm) current experiment, forming pressure was input according to the pressurization profile obtained by the FEM analysis shown Fig.5. Thickness distribution around periphery of the cross section area shown in Fig. 4. in Fig. 3.
cF

-----

sr

IV.

CONCLUSIONS

co
u)

aD

-0
5~ ~

0,

In the present study, we demonstrated that aluminum suspensions could be produced by using gas blow forming method. By successful development of the proper material and simulation technique, mass production of aluminum suspensions is expected to be realized in near future in Korea. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
)o

~~~iesc

Fig.3. Pressure-time history plot calculated by FEM at 793K.

3.3 Experimental results Fig. 4 shows the aluminum suspension component successfully fabricated by gas blow forming at 793K after gas input time of 120 sec. No visible cracks were found anywhere, including the area where the largest thickness reduction was associated.

We would like to thank Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and Ulsan Metropolitan City, which partly supported my research through the Network-based Automation Research Center (NARC) at University of Ulsan.

REFERENCES
[1] James G. Schroth,'General Motors' Quick Plastic Forming Process', TMS Annual Meeting (Charlotte, North Carolina) pp. 5-9, 2004. [2] John E. Carsley and Richard H. Hammar, 'Heating Aluminum Sheet to Enable High-Strain Forming', TMS Annual Meeting (Charlotte, North Carolina) pp. 10-14, 2004.

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