The development of a microscale tube hydroforming test bed and novel sealing system: A work in progress

摘要

A microscale/multiscale tube hydroforming system including tooling and controls is being designed and implemented at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as part of a collaborative effort with Michigan Technological University. The sealing system demonstrates the evolution of the flared tube ends approach for tube end sealing to a spherical metal-on-metal sealing system. One of the features of the tooling is that while the tooling is capable of producing microscale hydroforming, the entire system can now be made using conventional CNC machining operations. Preliminary work has begun for implementing control of the hydroforming process using a PLC and a custom built continuous high pressure system capable of 415 MPa is described. Preliminary results for formed sample tubes are discussed.