Hydraulic Bulging of Tees

Hydraulic bulging of tees is a forming process that uses axial compensation of metal materials to expand branch pipes. The process involves using a dedicated hydraulic press to inject liquid into a tube blank with a diameter equal to the diameter of the tee. The tube blank is compressed through two horizontal side cylinders of the hydraulic press, which move synchronously to the center. The volume of the tube blank decreases after compression, and the pressure inside the tube blank increases as the volume of the tube blank decreases. When the pressure required for the expansion of the tee branch pipe is reached, the metal material flows along the inner cavity of the mold and expands out of the branch pipe under the dual action of the pressure of the side cylinder and the liquid inside the tube blank.
The hydraulic bulging process of the tee can be formed in one go, resulting in high production efficiency; The main pipe and shoulder wall thickness of the tee have increased.
Due to the large tonnage of equipment required for the hydraulic expansion process of seamless tees, it is mainly used in the manufacturing of standard wall thickness tees less than DN400 in China. The suitable forming materials are low-carbon steel, low alloy steel, stainless steel with relatively low cold work hardening tendency, including some non-ferrous metal materials such as copper, aluminum, titanium, etc.