A note on hydroforming with constant fluid pressure

Abstract A simplified tooling for the hydroforming process was designed, fabricated and tested with the use of constant hydraulic pressure for the drawing operation. A 10 000 psi (68.9 kPa) hydraulic pump together with a pressure relief valve was used to supply the pressure needed in the process. A simple rubber diaphragm cast from rubber latex was used. The tooling was assembled on a single action press and tested using copper blanks. Preliminary results from these tests and a simple theoretical analysis for the upper and the lower bounds for the fluid pressure are presented in this paper.