Investigations into Forming Limits and Process Control of Micro-hydroforming

摘要

Several researches show that the comparatively new technology "micro-hydroforming" can provide significant advantages for the production of complex shaped metallic components which are required by the microsystems industry.Similar to the miniaturization of other metal forming processes, size-dependent effects and various challenges concerning the process design must be taken into account when transforming traditional hydroforming processes to micro-manufacturing.This paper gives a review of the state of the art in micro-hydroforming with regard to aspects that have to be considered for scaling down, to current developments in tube and sheet forming and to need for future research.Furthermore, investigation results dealing with forming limits in tube micro-hydroforming and the improvement of the formability as well as of the process stability by process controls with superimposed axial stresses are presented.