Numerical study on the effect of oscillation on the deformation behavior of single point incremental formed part

Abstract

The paper reports the deformation behavior of single point incremental formed part with sheet oscillation. Single point incremental forming is an emerging manufacturing technology. This technology provides the competition to the other innovative technologies such as electric-assisted manufacturing, hydroforming, high-speed forming, etc., to produce the lightweight and highly deformed components. Single point incremental forming is the die-less sheet metal forming process in which the single point tool incrementally forces any single point of sheet metal at any processing time to undergo plastic deformation. In single point incremental forming, the part stays fixed and the tool pin makes the planar and downward motion to shape the part. It has several advantages over the conventional process such as high process flexibility, elimination of die, complex shape, and better formability. Previous literature provides enormous research on the formability of metal during this process, process with various metals and hybrid metals, the influence of various process parameters, but research on the deformation behavior of the part through the oscillation of the tool was limited. In this paper, the single point incremental forming was simulated on ABAQUS finite-element software. The spiral tool path was studied. First, the part was formed without oscillation. Then the oscillation of the sheet with the help of a die and blank holder was set with a frequency to deform the part. The variation of frequency and amplitude was also studied. The formability of the part was analyzed and compared. The deformation, profile shape, strain path, thickness, and force requirement were analyzed and presented. It was found that with lower cycles the maximum stress increases with an increase in amplitude. Also, with an increase in the number of cycles the achieved strain values were lower as compared to the no oscillation case for the same cup height and thus higher deformation is possible with oscillation.