Experimentation and FE simulation of single point incremental forming

Abstract

One of the emerging flexible forming technologies in the sheet metal engineering is the incremental sheet forming, it uses universal tooling that is mostly part independent. Hence this process provide higher flexibility reducing the product development greatly and making it useful for low volume production. Single Point Incremental forming is drawing attention of the researchers & scientist all over the world because of the attractive characteristics. Like: improved formability, elimination of die & conventional press and ease of operation on general purpose Vertical Machining Centre. As this way of creating sheet metal formed products is in development stage, the factors affecting this needs comprehensive investigations.In this paper experimental and numerical investigation of formability of Aluminium 8011 alloy are presented and compared by preparing a conical frustum shape using SPIF process. The complete process is simulated using CATIA manufacturing simulation model to generate the path of Hemispherical end tool tip. Numeric Control (NC) part program is generated with the help of this simulated path to form the sheet into conical frustum shape on CNC mill machine. Four process parameters viz. vertical step depth, feed rate, spindle speed and angle of cone are chosen for the experimental investigations keeping height of the cone and material sheet thickness constant. Temperature, thickness reduction, strain and machining time are selected as a response variable. Optimizations are performed using TAGUCHI and ANOVA while the numerical study of the process is performed through ANSYS workbench software to predict stress, strain, temperature and thickness Results of experiments and numerical study are in close accord.