Manufacture of an aerospace component by single point incremental forming

Abstract

Abstract Single point incremental forming has shown promising application in the field of rapid prototyping and custom manufacture. De- pending on the required geometry of the component, one or multi-stage forming might be required for the successful manufacture. In this paper, a C-channel designed for the vibrational testing of airplane fuselage system was developed. The final component was developed through trial and error using a combination of strategies. Conventional downward strategy was found to be successful in the manufacture of the component. The intermediate geometries employed for the successful manufacture are presented. Geomet- rical errors in the resulting component are also reported. This work will be of interest to anyone seeking to employ conventional downward strategy to manufacture a complex part. The results show that forming complicated shapes successfully requires trial and error experimental work, and knowledge of the process. The developed component still may have unacceptable geometrical errors and thickness variation.