The wrinkling has become the main defect in the thin-walled tube NC bending process. In the study, a dynamic explicit FE model for aluminum alloy thin-walled tube NC bending process is developed to predict the wrinkling by using FE code ABAQUS/Explicit. Attention was paid to the influences of mass scaling, loading rate scaling, mesh density and element type on accurate wrinkling prediction. So the wrinkling modes and mechanism are revealed based on the reliable FE model. Then a two step strategy is proposed to capture the critical bifurcation point for the optimal design process. The results show: 1) The boundary conditions determine the tube materials response greatly so that the frequency analysis is meaningless to the simulation. It is the contact conditions that make the effect of the mass scaling and loading rate less significant.2) There are two wrinkling modes in the tube bending process. One refers to that local ripples occur initially in the straight regions contacted with wiper die and mandrel; the other refers to that local wrinkles occur in the curved regions due to the relative slipping between tube and clamp die. 3) Both the difference of the in-plane compressive stresses and the relative slipping distance are chosen to be the quantitative indexes to represent the critical point and wrinkling tendency. The experiment of aluminum alloy (5052 O) tube bending was carried out to verify whether the above wrinkle modes exist and the indexes proposed are reasonable to catch the critical bifurcation point. The results may help better understanding of the wrinkling mechanism and the process optimization of the tube bending.
Elongation and springback are the bottleneck problems of thin-walled aluminum alloy tube NC precision bending. So thin-walled aluminum alloy tube NC precision bending based on finite element simulation is put forward. The finite element model of thin-walled aluminum alloy tube NC bending is established based on the DYNAFORM platform. The process of thin-walled aluminum alloy tube NC precision bending is simulated with the model and the elongation and springback of tube bending can be gained. A new method of measuring the elongation of thin-walled tube NC precision bending named 'pressure die measuring method' is put forward and the computing equations of bending angle, bending radius, blanking length and initial bending section based on elongation and springback angle are derived. The bending angle, bending radius, blanking length and initial bending section of tube bending can be gained with these equations based on the elongation and springback angle from the simulation. The study can be used to control the quality of thin-walled aluminum alloy tube NC bending so that precision bending without redundance can be realized.
The effect of frictions between dies and tube on the cross section quality of thin-walled tube numerical controlled(NC) bending was studied by numerical simulation method, combined with theoretical analysis and experiment. The results show that the frictions between mandrel, wiper, pressure die, bending die and tube have a significant and complicate effect on the section quality of thin-walled tube NC bending. To improve the section quality, frictions between mandrel, wiper and tube should be decreased, but the frictions between the pressure die, bending die and tube increase. The effect on the section distortion is more significant from mandrel, wiper, pressure die to bending die and the effect on the wall thinning more significant from mandrel, pressure die, wiper, to bending die. The effects of frictions between all dies and tube on wall thinning are smaller than their effects on section distortion. Mandrel and wiper should be lubricated well and drawing oil is used to lubricate them in actual production. The frictions between pressure die, bending die and tube should be increased and the dry friction is used between pressure die, bending die and tube in actual production.
