Evaluation of effective parameters in metal bellows forming process

The manufacturing of metal bellows with high ratios of crown-to-root diameters is very sensitive to design parameters such as internal pressure inside the tube, axial force and movement, die-stroke length (distance of the dies) as well as the initial tube length. In this study a metal bellows is simulated with FEM using a commercial code (ABAQUS/Explicit) in order to find the optimum design parameters. Using the estimated design parameters lead to a product with acceptable quality. In this work, the manufacturing of metal bellows consists of only bulging and folding stages. After the folding process, internal pressure, axial force and annular plate dies are removed and the length of the bellows increases due to spring back. The quality of the final product depends on the amount of spring back, crown diameter, and thickness distribution. The results obtained from the experiment show very good agreement with the results of FEM.

Experimental and finite element analysis of parameters in manufacturing of metal bellows

https://nal-ir.nal.res.in/12204/1/ja518.pdf

Z.F. Sang

Papers

The effect of environmental medium on fatigue life for u-shaped bellows expansion joints