An investigation on multistage bending of blank sheet into cylindrical tube by experiment and numerical simulation

Abstract

In this paper, one pair of punch and die was employed to experimentally investigate the pure bending of blank sheet into cylindrical tube by multistage process. The investigated material was hot-rolled HSLA370 with the thickness of 2 mm. Numerical simulation was conducted on bending and springback with LS-DYNA solver. Results showed that multistage bending technique was an alternative way to produce cylindrical tubes. The sequence is described as ${\text{Blank}}\,{\text{sheet}}\xrightarrow{{{\text{Multistage}}\,{\text{bending}}}}{\text{C - tube}}\xrightarrow[{{\text{Welding}}}]{{{\text{Squeezing}}}}{\text{O - tube}}$. Gap width and roundness of C-tube (configuration like letter “C”) were two dominant parameters to evaluate the bending performance. The effects of blank positioning on both of them were investigated by means of numerical simulation. Laser-welded tubes meeting roundness and the tolerance limit of diameter were produced. Simulation revealed that effective plastic strain along circumferential direction was much low, mostly ranging between 0.03 and 0.05. Severe thinning and shape defects were not observed in the finished tubes. A numerical model was developed and its effectiveness was verified by a comparison between the predicted results and the corresponding experiments.