A Study on Process Design of Automobile Parts Using Extruded Material by Die Forming

Currently, the use of aluminum alloy which is light weighted is increasing. Extruded aluminum profiles are used as automobile frame parts for higher stiffness and light weight. However, few studies have been performed on die forming technology of extruded materials which productivity can be much increased with. In this study, die forming processes with precision dies have been designed to manufacture automobile control arm and subframe parts using aluminum extruded profiles. Computer aided analyses have been conducted for the designed processes by the commercial FEM code, DEFORM-3D. From the results of the computational analysis, process planning and forming analysis will be completed by using the extruded profiles. And then, forming dies for each process were designed and pilot products of subframe parts and control arms were manufactured by the verified forming process. In addition, some of the important features of design parameters in the die forming were investigated.