Main Research and Current Developments in Hydroforming at the Institute for Metal Forming Technology (IFU)

摘要

Part manufacturing using a force transferring fluid medium meets a number of quality requirements and has been researched extensively in the past years. Basically fluid pressure forming technology is considerably old, during last decade of the previous millennium a huge impetus was placed on part manufacturing using hydroforming techniques for tubes, closed sectional profiles and sheet metals. The basic need for cost reduction and part quality enhancement was explored for a large variety of complex metal parts by many companies and researchers worldwide. Tube hydroforming gained importance due to achievable flexibility in part design and the relatively simple press design. Sheet hydroforming in general not was accepted widely by industry due to the large press forces required for such process. The initial euphoria of using this innovative technology for any given part geometry for e.g. automotive body parts, however, has faded away due to various reasons. This paper discusses criteria for choosing this technology from today's point of view and presents actual research activities in this field. Also results achieved in this area at the Institute for Metal Forming Technology (IFU), Universitat Stuttgart also have been described.