Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Tiffanie E Coe

Kevin R Marks

Paul Edward Krajewski

William R Rodgers

Mike M Ghiran

Spyros Pete Mellas

Howard W Cox

Terry Andrew Kent

Michael H Lovell

Darrell W Rebman

William Parker

John Collins

A method and system for forming a part from a workpiece including a hollow portion, using a mandrel and a conventional press such as a stamping press includes filling the hollow portion of the workpiece with a mandrel material and transforming the mandrel material to form a mandrel. The mandrel material is removable from the formed part and may be recycled to form a mandrel for another workpiece.

Internal mandrel and method

A hydroforming seal and method includes a nozzle having both a radially expandable O-ring seal and a conical tapered surface for separately sealing with the bore of the tube. The O-ring seal is expanded to seal the tube and pressurized fluid is added sufficient to support the interior of the tube while the dies are closed so that the tube is thereby bent and forced into the die cavity without collapse or injury to the tube. The O-ring seal is then contracted to a non-sealing position and the conical tapered surface provides metal-to-metal sealing while the higher hydroforming pressure is applied to expand the tube. The nozzle also has a radial shoulder that engages the end face of the tube so that advance of the nozzle feeds the tube into the die.

Two mode hydroform seal apparatus and method

Growing community of inventors

Sterling Heights, MI, United States of America

Tiffanie E Coe