Abstract
Presently, high accuracy is required to fabricate several automotive parts, such as engine parts, manufactured by tube bending processes. In an effort to achieve this requirement, we investigated a new tube-draw bending method using an ultrasonic-vibration plug. Firstly, we developed a new bending machine using an axial-ultrasonic-vibration plug at a frequency of 20 kHz and a maximum amplitude of 8μm (0-p). Secondly, we experimented on the tube-draw bending of carbon steel, stainless steel and titanium tubes. From the result of this study, we clarified that there are several advantages of the proposed ultrasonic-vibration tube-draw bending method, such as reduction in bending force and improvement in accuracy in terms of bending dimensions.
