The Development of an ICAD KBE Application for Hydroformed Tube Design

Hydroforming is a forming process enabling circular metal tubes to be produced in complex cross sections along curved axial paths. They offer advantages over stamped sheet metal in lower tooling cost and structural mass. However, design for hydroforming is particularly difficult, involving a highly iterative design process.

Various CAD/CAE systems offer opportunities for automating the design. Knowledge Based Engineering was chosen as the most appropriate and design trials were conducted to help choose a system. A design solution was written and subsequently refined to give a high degree of design automation. KBE has been used to integrate the design process to include packaging and structural analysis.