Study on influence of process parameters in incremental forming using finite element simulations and Taguchi orthogonal array

Abstract

Incremental forming is a novel sheet metal forming process in which the sheet is deformed in a series of incremental steps with a small hemispherical punch. The motion of the tool is controlled by a computer numerical control (CNC) part program and the process is carried out on a CNC milling machine. The present paper discusses the effect of various process parameters on forces, plastic strain and thinning through numerical simulations. Three important process parameters, namely the punch diameter, step depth and wall angle are used as input parameters. Taguchi orthogonal arrays are used to plan the number of simulations to study the effect of process parameters on the response variables. The numerical simulations are performed using finite element software LS-DYNA. Initially, the tool path is generated using Pro-manufacturing software and is modified into suitable format for numerical simulations using Python and MATLAB programming. The results show that the wall angle has maximum influence on all three response variables.