Hydroforming gaining ground
After conquering America and Europe, hydroforming is all set to take India by storm.
Ingrid Rasquinha highlights its positive uses and its future in the automotive sector
Today's business environment, characterised by
cost-cutting measures and increasing competition,
has automakers scrambling to maintain their
market share and profitability. The automobile industry is
constantly striving to reduce vehicle weight while
maintaining or improving performance and fuel efficiency.
Despite major advances in engine and powertrain
technology, the need to reduce vehicle weight still exists.
Automobile manufacturers are looking at alternatives to
steel traditionally used in car production and innovative
manufacturing methods to produce parts which can help
achieve this.
Hydroforming, as a manufacturing technology, has
provided a major impetus in this direction by helping
shaving off unnecessary mass from parts and by providing
selective rigidity where required. This selective control of
material distribution has led to a reduction in weight of
parts and at the same time increase in strength as desired.
The interesting fact to note is that these benefits are not
necessarily at an increased cost.
Of the two hydroforming methodstubular
and sheet, tubular hydroforming
has caught on more rapidly. Both use
high pressure fluid to form parts of
complex shape. In tube hydroforming, a
tubular blank, which may be pre-formed,
is expanded under simultaneous
application of fluid pressure on the inside
of the tube and mechanical compressive
force along the axis of the tube. In sheet
hydroforming, fluid pressure acts over the
entire surface of the sheet to wrap/form it
around a punch of desired punch shape.
Both methods lead to a considerable
increase in the strength of the
hydroformed part.
HYDROFORMING SCENE TODAY
Hydroforming is coming on strong in the
American and European markets. Once
considered the realm of only high-volume automotive
components, it is now spreading to other industries
such as aerospace, appliances and motorcycle.
While automotive applications of the process are clearly
making most of the headlines, the aerospace industry
uses hydroforming for exhaust systems, engine parts
and vents, and appliance industry for piping, facets, sinks,
and so on.
Automotive manufacturers cite numerous reasons for the
flurry of interest in hydroformed parts:
WEIGHT REDUCTION, INCREASED STRENGTH AND
IMPROVEMENT IN SAFETY
Inherent to the process is the ability to control the flow of
material along the part and the strain hardening of the
material as it undergoes expansion during hydroforming.
This allows judicious distribution of mass as desired by
the part function and at the same time, increase
in strength. These increased strength-to-weight ratios
help vehicles withstand the demanding crash tests and
improve safety.
.........CONTD
