Process for manufacturing hollow bodies
AssigneeAlusuisse Technology & Management Ltd.
InventorsFrank Wehner, Gerd Springe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Hollow bodies such as construction elements for vehicle manufacture can be produced by forming a preform in the form of a longitudinal body or sheets of aluminum or its alloys by means of a high internal pressure process or by superplastic forming in a tool. In this process the preform is heat treated locally before forming, on places of high elongation during the forming process and/or the tool for the forming process is equipped with local surface characteristics of different friction such as roughness patterns or with smoothed surfaces.
Claims12
Process for manufacturing hollow bodies or sheets for construction elements for vehicles, which comprises:
- providing a preform of a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum and aluminum alloys in the form of one of a hollow longitudinal body and sheets;
- shaping said preform in a tool by means of one of high internal pressure and superplastic forming;
- wherein said shaping step includes at least one of (1) annealing said preform locally before the shaping step at places of high elongation during the shaping step, and (2) providing said tool for the shaping step with local characteristics of different degrees of friction;
- thereby providing construction elements for vehicles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.