Hydroforming is a technology that utilizes hydraulic pressure to form tube or sheet materials into desired shapes inside die cavities. Three-layered tube is assembled with inner, center and outer tube, similar in material or not and deforming simultan...
Hydroforming is a technology that utilizes hydraulic pressure to form tube or sheet materials into desired shapes inside die cavities. Three-layered tube is assembled with inner, center and outer tube, similar in material or not and deforming simultaneously when internal pressure and axial feed were applied on the tube. Three-layered tube hydroforming is suitable to produce multiple tube joints which can be used in special applications such as automotive, aerospace, piping system and nuclear power plants. The precise control of internal pressure loading path in tube hydroforming process significantly affects on the final product quality. In this study, the effect of the loading path on forming characteristics in the tube hydroforming process is investigated. Free bulging tests were performed to study the expansion ability of the three tubes and tube hydroforming in a closed die was performed to investigate the hydroformability of the tubes. Hydroforming characteristics at various loading paths were analyzed and the loading path was optimized. The results show that final product of three-layered tube can be successfully fabricated by tube hydroforming process under optimized process parametes.