Forming of Automotive Aluminium Body Panels by Sheet Hydroforming

摘要

This paper discusses the application of sheet hydroforming technology to the forming of deep draw aluminum automotive body panels and the formability advantages available. Currently, the amount of aluminum in vehicle architectures is somewhat limited due to cost and also the inability to incorporate common body panel design to aluminum sheet due to lower formability. Typical aluminum sheet has approximately about 30～40% of the formability of comparative steel grades. Automotive designers have been hampered by this fact and have not been able to successfully introduce aluminum sheet for wide range of panels. Sheet hydroforming, however, has a formability advantage over many types of forming methods. This paper will discuss those advantages and show some successful applications to the automotive industry.