Study of Bulging-Pressing Compound-Deforming Automobile Axle Housing with a Common Press
The conventional hydroforming process for automobile axle housing needs a large-tonnage press and has the drawback of the dome part being apt to burst due to the large thinning. A new forming technology, bulging-pressing compound-deforming for automobile axle housing, is proposed, which is suitable for the large variable-diameter tube parts with special-shaped cross-sections. The initial tube is made into the axisymmetric peforming tube after the ends necked and the middle hydroformed, and which then is pressed into the axle housing sample by the dies. For a small automobile axle housing, the process tryout and the pressing dies were designed, and the axle housing samples were successfully produced with a common press. Compare with the conventional hydroforming process, the forming corner radiuses of present samples are smaller and the internal pressure decreased 60%. The results show that the process has the advantages of good corner-filling ability and low internal hydraulic pressure.