Abstract: The effect of mandrel with the structure of ball and socket on the cross section quality of thin-walled tube numerical controlled(NC) bending was studied by numerical simulation method, combined with theoretical analysis and experiment. Influencing factors of the mandrel include the count of mandrel heads, the diameter of mandrel and its position. According to the principle of NC tube bending, quality defects possibly produced in thin-walled tube NC bending process were analyzed and two parameters were proposed in order to describe the cross section quality of thin-walled tube NC bending. According to the geometrical dimension of tube and dies, the range of mandrel protrusion was derived. The finite element model of thin-walled tube NC bending was established based on the DYNAFORM platform, and key technological problems were solved. The model was verified by experiment. The effect of the number of mandrel heads, the diameter of mandrel and the protrusion length of mandrel on the cross section quality of thin-walled tube NC bending was revealed and how to choose mandrel parameters was presented.

Key words:  thin-walled tube; numerical controlled(NC) tube bending; mandrel; cross section quality; simulation