Applying Quick Gas Forming on Aluminum Sheet in Making Car Doors

High temperature gas forming of aluminum alloys contains two ingredients, superplastic forming (SPF)and quick plastic forming (QPF). The former process is suitable for aero industry featuring low volumeproduction and complex shape parts, and its existence has been about 50 years. The latter one, QPF, derivingfrom its predecessor, SPF, is suitable for auto industry in medium to large batch production, and its principaluser is GM (General Motors) with AA5083.Superplasticity and Superplastic Forming involves three research aspects: (1) Creating superplasticmaterials and determining their high temperature plastic flow properties, (2) Mechanics analysis andcomputer simulation of the process, (3) process practice and mold design. Our research group has been doingSuperplasticity and Superplastic Forming in all these aspects continuously up to now. We are specializing inthe second and third topics based on previous experience in working with the wing strakelet on Boeing 737and our possession of a SPF press.This project proposal will study QPF with 5xxx and 6xxx aluminum sheets. It will focus on two parts: (1)Car door (2) Decklid & Hood Assemblies. The gas forming process will be executed with our press insub-scale, and the complete production system for a specific car body and Deck Lid & Hood Assemblies willbe designed. Finally, This project will analysis topics: (1) Pressure-time curve (2) Thickness distribution (3)part dimension (4) Microstructure and Cavity (5) Structure strength.