Research on Whole Process Route of Electromagnetic Flanging of Aluminum Alloy Sheets

The service conditions of aluminum alloy components in aerospace were getting severer, and the higher strength and accuracy of components were required. Regarding electromagnetic flanging and heat treatment processes of aluminum alloys, whole process route of electromagnetic flanging was proposed through comparing and optimizing various process routes, so that structural parts with better performance were obtained. The flanged parts following the selected whole process route show excellent forming quality with satisfied size accuracy and good circumferential uniformity. The mechanics properties of the flanged parts were substantially improved, since the hardness was increased significantly and distributed uniformly. The proposed optimal electromagnetic flanging process was annealing-solution quenching-electromagnetic flanging-artificial aging. The proposed whole process route may be widely applied to forming local features on components in aerospace, for example, the hole flanging on propellant tanks for launch vehicles. © 2021, China Mechanical Engineering Magazine Office. All right reserved.