Pressurising materials and process design considerations of the pressure-assisted injection forging of thick-walled tubular components

To produce thick-walled, tubular components economically, the forming configuration in which a pressurising medium is used in injection forging has been simplified. FE and experimental analysis has been conducted to study the performance of the polymers that were used as the pressurising medium and to examine process design and component-quality issues. A testing method which uses a compound cylinder was also introduced to test the polymers under nearly confined conditions. Both material testing and forming experiment results showed that several polymers may function well as the pressurising medium for the configuration examined. The process can be effected by using a stepped punch, rather than using two punches (which need to be controlled independently), if the compressibility of the pressurising material can be compensated for sufficiently.