Progress on high pressure pneumatic forming and warm hydroforming of titanium and magnesium alloy tubular components

Complex structural tubular components of Titanium and Magnesium alloy can be obtained at a certain temperature by high pressure pneumatic forming (HPPF) with gas medium or warm hydroforming with pressurized liquid medium. At 800°, through experimental research on HPPF of TA18 Ti-alloy tube with expansion ratio of 50%, the influence of axial feeding on thickness distribution of the workpiece was studied. Using reasonable loading curve, the component with large ratio can be formed with a small thinning ratio as 13% with total axial feeding amount of 40mm. At 850°, HPPF experiments of TA18 Ti-alloy component with square section were carried out. The influence of gas pressure on thickness distribution and corner filling process were analyzed. The larger the pressure, the sooner the displacement changes at the corner, and the shorter corner filling term. At pressure of 30 MPa, small corner with the relative corner radius of 2.0 can be obtained within 168s. For Mg-alloy tubular part, warm hydroforming with non-uniform temperature field was studied. By using reasonable axial temperature field and loading path, the maximum thinning ratio of Mg-alloy tubular component with expansion ratio of 35% was reduced from 21.6% to 11.6%.