Design of a modular system for tube hydroforming for realizing a motorbike suspension component

The present paper describes the design made by the Group of Technologies and Manufacturing Systems (TSM) of the Brescia University of a modular equipment for tube hydroforming and of the simulation of an industrial application. The objectives are to describe the solutions adopted for the equipment design and to furnish general guidelines for a correct Design for Manufacturing of hydroformed pieces [1, 2].The hydroforming machine is characterized by three actuators: two of them are axial pushing units, one is a punching unit for making T or Y tube shapes or slots.In parallel with the machine design (which had many redesign steps), we developed a real application in cooperation with an Italian company (Sangrato), so as to use the machine in producing a suspension arm of a motorbike. Its feasibility with hydroforming has been evaluated by means of simulations.The equipment, which is now under production, has the final goal of validating the simulation results by making industrial components and defining some rules for the design for manufacturing of tube hydroformed parts.