Hot Forming of 7075 Aluminium Alloy Tubes to Produce Complex and Strong Components National Research Council Canada

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Béland, Béland, author.

Contributor:

Amours, Guillaume d'

Conference Name:

SAE 2012 World Congress & Exhibition (2012-04-24 : Detroit, Michigan, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2012

Summary:

Lightweight tubular products offering enhanced stiffness andstrength have always been of major concern for transportation andrecreational applications. Hence, industries have turned tocomplex-shaped tubes to increase product performance and reduceenergy costs. High-performance aluminum alloys, like 7075 forinstance, have good mechanical properties such as high strength,but low formability at ambient temperature.Fortunately, hot tensile tests on 7075 samples have yielded anincrease in formability with temperature. Therefore, testing hasrecently been launched at the Aluminum Technology Center to developa new product application. More precisely, a 1,000-ton hydraulicpress was equipped with +600°C heating plates and fitted with abicycle handlebar mold. The plates provide 10 separate heatingzones that can be adjusted independently. A thermo-mechanical modelwas also developed using LS-DYNA to determine tube temperaturesaround the heating zones. Hot tensile test results were alsoutilized to model tube behavior using an elastic viscoplastictemperature-dependent material constitutive law to predict tubewall stresses and strains.The finite element model can predict tube temperatures and gaspressures relative to time. Hot-forming process parameters wererapidly adjusted to successfully produce perfect handlebars.Conclusions not only include successful application where highformability is required, but also lead to a significant decrease informing loads and lower tooling and mechanical energy costs

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2012-01-0539

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license