Mold liners produced by incremental sheet forming

Investigation of control of the incremental forming processes

The work detailed in this paper focuses on a new forming strategy for the CNC incremental sheet forming (ISF) process that is appropriate to form steep flanges, e.g. for parts designed for deep‐drawing. When parts are designed for deep‐drawing, they usually contain steep or rectangular side walls that cannot be manufactured using the standard ISF strategies. Unlike prior approaches to obtain steep flanges through ISF, the present method achieves a rough approximation to the final part already in the preforming stage. This can be accomplished without excessive sheet thinning due to sheet bending and stretching at this stage. As a consequence, additional material can be used for the finishing stages, thus yielding a final part with largely reduced thinning. After basic studies on a simple benchmark problem, the new bending/stretching strategy is tested with an industrially applied part that is usually produced by deep‐drawing. Finally, the ISF workpiece is evaluated against the deep‐drawn component with respect to sheet thickness and geometric accuracy.

In incremental sheet forming (ISF), including single point incremental forming (SPIF) and double side incremental forming (DSIF), the material formability can be significantly enhanced when compared with conventional sheet forming processes. The material deformation in ISF is far more complicated because of the combined material deformation under stretching, bending, shearing, and cyclic loading, with an additional effect of compression in DSIF. Despite extensive investigation on material deformation during ISF, no theory has yet been widely agreed to explain different types of the material fracture behavior observed in ISF experiments. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the formability enhancement in ISF and proposes possible fracture mechanisms explaining the different types of fracture behavior observed in the experimental investigations. Discussions are presented to outline the current research progress and possible solutions to overcome the current ISF process limitations because of the material processing failure due to fracture.

Lightweight materials, such as titanium alloys, magnesium alloys, and aluminium alloys, are characterised by unusual combinations of high strength, corrosion resistance, and low weight. However, some of the grades of these alloys exhibit poor formability at room temperature, which limits their application in sheet metal-forming processes. Lightweight materials are used extensively in the automobile and aerospace industries, leading to increasing demands for advanced forming technologies. This article presents a brief overview of state-of-the-art methods of incremental sheet forming (ISF) for lightweight materials with a special emphasis on the research published in 2015–2021. First, a review of the incremental forming method is provided. Next, the effect of the process conditions (i.e., forming tool, forming path, forming parameters) on the surface finish of drawpieces, geometric accuracy, and process formability of the sheet metals in conventional ISF and thermally-assisted ISF variants are considered. Special attention is given to a review of the effects of contact conditions between the tool and sheet metal on material deformation. The previous publications related to emerging incremental forming technologies, i.e., laser-assisted ISF, water jet ISF, electrically-assisted ISF and ultrasonic-assisted ISF, are also reviewed. The paper seeks to guide and inspire researchers by identifying the current development trends of the valuable contributions made in the field of SPIF of lightweight metallic materials.

A strain-based forming limit criterion is widely used in sheet-metal forming industry to predict necking. However, this criterion is usually valid when the strain path is linear throughout the deformation process [1]. Strain path in incremental sheet forming is often found to be severely nonlinear throughout the deformation history. Therefore, the practice of using a strain-based forming limit criterion often leads to erroneous assessments of formability and failure prediction. On the other hands, stress-based forming limit is insensitive against any changes in the strain path and hence it is first used to model the necking limit in incremental sheet forming. The stress-based forming limit is also combined with the fracture limit based on maximum shear stress criterion to show necking and fracture together. A derivation for a general mapping method from strain-based FLC to stress-based FLC using a non-quadratic yield function has been made. Simulation model is evaluated for a single point incremental forming using AA 6022-T43, and checked the accuracy against experiments. By using the path-independent necking and fracture limits, it is able to explain the deformation mechanism successfully in incremental sheet forming. The proposed model has given a good scientific basis for the development of ISF under nonlinear strain path and its usability over conventional sheet forming process as well.

Evaluation of uncoupled ductile damage models for fracture prediction in incremental sheet metal forming

Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is a sheet metal forming process, which relies on minimum part-specific tooling. Extra Deep Drawn (EDD) steel has been used for making door inners, dash panels, bodyside inners, etc. due to its good weldability and relatively low yield strength. However, to date very limited work is reported on ISF of EDD steel. Besides, no work, which exhaustively discusses the practicability of EDD steel for effectual incremental forming of components, is found to be reported. The present work discusses the ISF of EDD steel sheets and examines the limitations of ISF in forming the parts out of 1.0 mm thick EDD steel sheets. Two geometries, i.e., ellipsoidal cone (with varying wall angle) and truncated cone (with constant wall angle) were used as test cases to evaluate the formability of EDD steel sheets, in terms of Critical Wall Angle (CWA). Further, the formability of EDD steel with ISF is evaluated using both strain-based and stress-based forming limit curves. The thickness distribution, geometrical accuracy, forming forces, and surface roughness and hardness are evaluated in the formed components. The work, through numerical simulations and experimental analyses, investigates the process capabilities of ISF to form the EDD steel sheets in terms of formability, thickness distribution, geometrical accuracy, forming forces, and surface roughness and hardness to ascertain the scope of the proposed process.

Shear modified Lemaitre damage model for fracture prediction during incremental sheet forming

This paper deals with Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF), a sheet metal forming process, that knew a wide development in the last years. It consists of a simple hemispherical tool that, moving along a defined path by means of either a CNC machine or a robot or a self designed device, locally deforms a metal sheet. A lot of experimental and simulative researches have been conducted in this field with different aims: to study the sheet formability and part feasibility as a function of the process parameters; to define models able to forecast the final sheet thickness as a function of the drawing angle and tool path strategy; to understand how the sheet deforms and how formability limits can be defined. Nowadays, a lot of these topics are still open. In this paper, the results obtained from an experimental campaign performed to study sheet formability and final part feasibility are reported. The ISF tests were conducted deforming FeP04 deep drawing steel sheet 0.8 mm thick and analyzing the influence of the tool path strategy and of the adopted ISF technique (Single Point Incremental Forming Vs. Two Points Incremental Forming). The part feasibility and formability were evaluated considering final sheet thickness, geometrical errors of the final part, maximum wall angle and depth at which the sheet breaks. Moreover, process forces measurements were carried out by means of a specific device developed by the Authors, allowing to obtain important information about the load acting on the deforming device and necessary for deforming sheet.

Niobium is a ductile transition metal of growing interest for several technological applications, thanks to its intriguing characteristics, among them high melting point, moderate density, good ductility, high corrosion resistance and superconductivity. By contrast, its use is limited by some weaknesses lied to the mechanical properties, which can undermine the quality of the surfaces worked by metal forming processes. Sheets of pure Niobium can be used for the manufacture of extremely customized components and a flexible process like the incremental sheet forming fits well with this manufacturing philosophy; in fact, this technique does not require complicated tools and/or dedicated equipment and is capable to respond quickly to the market demands. The scope of this paper is to investigate the influence of the tool/sheet contact conditions on different features like the forming loads, the surface quality and the occurrence of failures, when pure Niobium rolled sheets are formed incrementally. To this aim, the simplest variant of incremental sheet forming, namely single point incremental forming, was considered by using a common fixed end forming tool with hemispherical head. The process was carried out under dry and lubricated tool/sheet contact conditions, following the indications from a preliminary campaign of wear tests conducted by a pin-on-disk apparatus. The experimental campaign highlights the strong influence of the tool/sheet contact conditions and the importance of a correct choice of them on the features investigated, in order to limit the forming forces and the risk of failure, as well as to preserve the surface quality of the components made by incremental sheet forming of Niobium.

Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is a flexible forming process suitable for low volume production of sheet metal components. Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF), which has only one tool forming the geometry, is the simplest variant of incremental forming. Bending of sheet between the component opening and the fixed boundary is unavoidable in SPIF due to the absence of support/backup. Double Sided Incremental Forming (DSIF) has two tools which can be used interchangeably for forming and providing local support. The accuracy of parts formed using DSIF is superior to those formed using SPIF as the unwanted bending is substantially reduced by providing local support. In addition DSIF is capable of forming components with features on both sides of the initial plane of sheet and convex and concave features without additional setup. In ISF, as the deformation progresses, the intended geometry slowly develops, this increases the stiffness of the sheet. While forming multiple features, the forming sequence greatly affects the way stiffness builds-up, which further affects the geometry of formed components. In the present work, an experimental investigation is carried out to demonstrate the affect of forming sequence on the geometries and accuracy of formed component. Results presented show that the feature sequencing greatly affects the geometry and accuracy of formed components.

Investigation of control strategies for fracture prevention in the multi-point incremental sheet forming process

Critical state-of-the-art literature review of surface roughness in incremental sheet forming: A comparative analysis

Appropriate heat treatment and incremental forming route to produce age-hardened components of Al-2219 alloy with minimized form error and high formability

Recent Approaches for the Manufacturing of Polymeric Cranial Prostheses by Incremental Sheet Forming