Nisshin Steel Co., Ltd.

Hanji Ishikawa

Satoshi Suzuki

Masato Otsuka

Naoto Hiramatsu

Toshiro Adachi

Takashi Yamauchi

Junichi Katsuki

Shigeru Morikawa

Toshirou Nagoya

Hideki Tanaka

A fuel tank for a motor vehicle is fabricated from an austenitic stainless steel sheet having elongation of 50% or more after fracture by a uniaxial stretching test with a work-hardening coefficient of 4000 N/mmor a ferritic stainless steel sheet having elongation of 30% or more after fracture with Lankford value of 1.3 or more. The stainless steel sheets are reformed to a complicated shape of a fuel tank without work flaws such as cracks or break-down. Excellent corrosion-resistance of stainless steel itself is maintained in the fabricated fuel tank. Consequently, the proposed fuel tank is used without diffusion of gasoline to the open air over a long term.

Stainless steel fuel tank for automobile

A fuel-filler tube, which is made of a welded pipe of corrosion-resistant austenitic or ferritic stainless steel, has a fuel-supply opening with high dimensional accuracy. The austenitic stainless steel has hardness of 180 HV or less with a work-hardening coefficient of 0.49 or less. The ferritic stainless steel has Lankford value of 1.2 or more with elongation of 30% or more by a uniaxial tensile test.

Stainless steel oil feeding pipe

Soft stainless steel sheet excellent in workability

A method of manufacturing a metal pipe with an eccentrically expanded open end comprises the steps of plastically deforming to a coaxially expanded state M so that an axial wall length L at a side to be eccentrically expanded is longer than an axial wall length L at the opposite side to be expanded without eccentricity. The coaxially expanded open end M is then plastically deformed to an eccentrically expanded state M by forcibly inserting an eccentrically expanding punch into the coaxially expanded open end M . The eccentrically expanding punch has a boundary between a conical tip and a cylindrical body inclined with a predetermined angle &thgr; so as to bring the cylindrical body into contact with an inner wall of the coaxially expanded open end M at a side to be eccentrically expanded earlier than the opposite side to be expanded without eccentricity. When the coaxially expanded open end M is plastically deformed to an eccentrically expanded state M , metal flow is suppressed at a side to, be eccentrically expanded, but metal flow from the opposite side to be expanded without eccentricity to the former side is promoted. Consequently, the open end is plastically deformed to the eccentrically expanded state M without any thickness deviation along a circumferential direction.

Method of manufacturing a metal pipe with an eccentrically expanded open end

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Amagasaki, Japan

Hanji Ishikawa