Technology of sheet hydroforming with a movable female die

An improved sheet hydroforming process is proposed and investigated experimentally and numerically. A movable female die keeps in contact with the deformed area of the sheet blank so that further deformation of the deformed area is restricted. Under the sealing, the sheet blank under the flange can be drawn in. So the hydroformed part has less thinning than the hydrobulge formed part only, and the limit drawing ratio of the sheet can be remarkably improved. This process is especially suitable for forming of small batch production of sheet metal parts with complicated shapes. The female die can be replaced with other female die of various shapes, and can also be made of very cheap materials such as plaster and hard wood instead of metal when the part number is very small. Thus complex-shaped sheet parts can be formed with less expensive tool systems. In this paper, the hydroforming processes of part A (without a movable die) and part B (with a movable die) were investigated by experiment and by elastoplastic FEM. The effects of various process parameters on the deformation of the sheet blanks were investigated. The forming conditions affecting wrinkling and rupture have been analyzed. The effects of friction and contacting force acting on the experimental results are also discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.