A study on press forming of automotive sub-frame parts using extruded aluminum profile

The necessities for reducing fuel consumption as well as lightweight design, lead to an increase of the use of aluminum alloys in the automobile industry. Extruded aluminum profile channels are used widely for the design of frame parts as lightweight assemblies, especially if a high stiffness is needed. While many applications can be realized with forming of hollow square-sectioned extruded profiles such as a stretch bending and a hydro-forming, some applications demand the use of a press bending which can be hardly found in the previous study. In this study, by introducing the use of a press bending into car sub-frames, the demands for higher accuracy as well as higher flexible method than the conventional methods will be satisfied. With respect to the design of sub-frames, the process planning was performed from the shape of a sub-frame product. The designed processes were analyzed by the commercial FEM code, DEFORM-3D. Forming dies for the each process were designed and prototypes of sub-frames were manufactured by the verified forming process. In addition, some of the important features of design parameters in the press bending were reviewed.