Extra Heavy Wall Hydroformed Bellows

For a high pressure heat exchanger application at Augusta Services, Senior Flexonics Pathway was requested to manufacture a 4” diameter bellows of .125” thickness. Making a bellows of this thickness is difficult in any size. But in a very small size, the task becomes nearly impossible.

Hydraulic forming was selected as the best process to use for the application. the bellows tube was made by machining seamless tubing to the desired thickness. The bellows tube was then annealed to obtain maximum ductility. After the forming dies were installed, the bellows was set up in a 100 ton press to begin the forming operation.

A pressure of 4,500 psig was required to expand the bellows tube to the correct diameter. The full capacity of the 100 ton press was required to compress the bellows to complete the forming process. The result was a perfectly formed two convolution bellows on the first attempt.

For more information about heavy wall thickness expansion joints contact Senior Flexonics Pathway. Visit our web site at www.myej.com.