Comparison of Tube Formability in Electromagnetic Forming and High Speed Hydroforming

Tube forming is a common forming process in industry. There are several methods in tube forming, whereas industries are looking for best methods with low cost and high speed. For this reason, industries need new modern forming methods. Electromagnetic forming and tube hydroforming are two modern processes which are used in manufacturing of hollow complex parts. These two processes are considered as high speed forming methods in automotive industries. In this paper, the processes of electromagnetic forming of tubes and high speed hydroforming of tubes have been investigated by numerical simulations and empirical method. Firstly, the results of numerical solutions by ABAQUS software are compared with empirical tests. At last these two forming methods have been compared in terms of displacement, stress distribution and thickness distribution. The results of deformation and thickness of the tip of the bulged tubes in empirical tests are in good agreement with the results of numerical simulations of this research. The results show that formability and bulge height in electromagnetic forming process are higher than high speed hydroforming. However, high speed hydroforming may be used in applications such as shirring fitting of parts and rings on tubes instead of electromagnetic forming.