Tailor layered tube hydroforming for fabricating tubular parts with dissimilar thickness

To produce highly functional tubular parts with locally different properties, tailor welded tubes (TWTs), which are made by tube-to-tube welding of tubes having different thicknesses or mechanical properties, are hydroformed. Notwithstanding the numerous applications of TWT hydroforming processes, TWT presents some disadvantages and considerable risk owing to the presence of a weld seam. This study proposes and characterizes the tailor layered tube (TLT) hydroforming process, which can fabricate hollow tubular parts with dissimilar thicknesses by using TLTs without welding. The proposed TLT hydroforming process was implemented and characterized both numerically and experimentally to validate its feasibility. The optimal loading path to prevent defects including insufficient bulging and wrinkle were analytically determined and verified by experiments. The deformation behaviors of TLT were also characterized at various processing parameters. The results demonstrate that the proposed TLT hydroforming process can be a feasible alternative for achieving tailored properties even with dissimilar thicknesses, with high reliability.