Evaluating porthole and seamless aluminum tubes and lubricants for hydroforming

The effect of extrusion method and lubrication on formability of aluminum tubes in hydroforming is experimentally investigated. First, the formability differences between seamless and porthole aluminum 6063 and 6260 alloy tubes, at T1 and T6 heat treatment conditions, are studied using free bulging. Second, the performances of a wide range of lubricants are ranked using zone-dependent friction tests, e.g., guiding zone and expansion zone, which emulate the two different interface mechanics existing in a THF operation. Results showed that seamless tubes, under any condition, give 5 % more expansion compared to porthole. Also, if a tube has T6 condition, seamless shows clear formability advantage over porthole. However, porthole is found to be quite satisfactory for tubes at T1 condition since they achieved more than %10 expansion. “Zone-dependent” (expansion zone and guiding zone) lubrication tests are conducted using wet and dry lubricants. Results showed that while a dry lubricant performed best in the expansion zone, a wet lubricant performed best in the guiding zone.