Deformation Behavior of Aluminum Alloy Tube in Semi-Dieless Metal Bellows Forming Process with Local Heating Technique

Abstract

The metal bellows are used in a large number of industrial applications for their flexile and elastic properties. For the traditional manufacturing methods for metal bellows, the dies and (or) tools are required. It is inconvenient to change the shape of metal bellows and also leads to the high cost. To reduce the manufacturing cost and produce the metal bellows with various shapes, the semi-dieless metal bellows forming process was proposed. The deformation behavior of aluminum alloy tube in semi-dieless bellows forming process was investigated in the study. The effects of compression ratio, heating length on the convolution height, pitch of bellows during the semi-dieless bellows forming process were studied. The results showed that the deformation conditions of semi-dieless forming process have significant influences on the shape of aluminum alloy bellows and deformation behavior of aluminum alloy tube in the forming process. The increase of compression ratio, heating temperature and heating length resulted in the increase of pitch and decrease convolution height of aluminum alloy metal bellows.