Finite Element Simulation Of Process For Automobile Steering Knuckle

Automobile steering knuckle is an important part of the automobile chassis. It is hard to form because of complex structure and high requirement about quality. Now it needs several trials depend on the designer's experiences to control the product quality, which takes too much production cost and long production cycle. FEM checks product quality by virtual material process, it can save cost and a lot of time. In this paper the automobile steering knuckle forming processes are discussed.Long rod steering knuckle (4010 bus steering knuckle) and branch steering knuckle (All car steering knuckle) are taken as the research objects. The rigid-viscoplastic finite element models of forming process for steering knuckle are built by DEFORM^TM.The long rod steering knuckle (4010 bus steering knuckle) hammer forging forming process bases on its structure features is obtained. By comparing the load between two step forming and one step forming in hammer forging process, the two step forming process is more reasonable. The strain, stress, velocity and temperature fields of two steps forming process are analyzed.The branch steering knuckle (All car steering knuckle) extruding and forging complex forming process bases on its structure features is presented. To avoid defects in conventional design, the optimized preformed billet of the extruding and forging complex process is got by finite element trial simulations. To decrease forming load, a splitter cavity is added in the preform closed extrusion. The final forming process and effects of forming load which worked by process parameters have been analyzed, the results show it gets a good forging part and high material utilization ratio.