Forming Characteristics and Process Specification Design of Rotary Stamping Expansion of 5A02 Aluminum Alloy Pipeline Ends Based on Numerical Simulation

MIAO Xinfang; HUANG Bikun; XU Zengxin; LIU Chengbo; ZHANG Song; ZHANG Xin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-6457.2026.05.002

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Journal of Netshape Forming Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 18 ›› Issue (5) : 12-23. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-6457.2026.05.002

Light Alloy Forming

Forming Characteristics and Process Specification Design of Rotary Stamping Expansion of 5A02 Aluminum Alloy Pipeline Ends Based on Numerical Simulation

MIAO Xinfang¹, HUANG Bikun¹, XU Zengxin¹, LIU Chengbo¹, ZHANG Song¹, ZHANG Xin^2,*

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Abstract

In order to address the urgent need to replace existing stainless steel pipelines in high-speed trains with assemblies and pipelines made of 5A02 aluminum alloy, the work aims to develop a rotary stamping expansion forming method for 5A02 aluminum alloy pipelines, and establish the corresponding forming process window. A numerical simulation study was carried out to investigate the rotary stamping expansion forming process and characteristics of pipeline ends of six specifications. The effects of feed speed and punch rotation speed on the expansion process were analyzed to identify the forming characteristics and develop process specifications for rotary stamping expansion of aluminum alloys. Five specifications (ϕ15 mm×1 mm, ϕ15 mm×1.5 mm, ϕ18 mm×1 mm, ϕ18 mm×1.5 mm, ϕ28 mm×1 mm) of aluminum alloy pipes exhibited good formability in the rotary stamping expansion process, yielding expanded parts with accurate sizes and good surface quality. In contrast, the ϕ28 mm×2 mm pipe experienced excessive strain at the outer edge during expansion, resulting in poor edge quality and rendering this specification unsuitable for the rotary expansion method. The equivalent stress distribution indicated that localized stress concentrations occurred during the expansion process, which could lead to the formation of aluminum debris and consequently affected the inner surface quality. Based on the simulation results, the expansion process parameters were optimized and then the accuracy of the numerical simulation was validated by experiments. The optimized process window is determined as a feed speed of 2-6 mm/s and a punch rotation speed of 200-400 r/min.

Key words

aluminum alloy / rotary stamping expansion / formability / process specification / numerical simulation

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MIAO Xinfang, HUANG Bikun, XU Zengxin, LIU Chengbo, ZHANG Song, ZHANG Xin. Forming Characteristics and Process Specification Design of Rotary Stamping Expansion of 5A02 Aluminum Alloy Pipeline Ends Based on Numerical Simulation[J]. Journal of Netshape Forming Engineering. 2026, 18(5): 12-23 https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1674-6457.2026.05.002

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