Research on manufacturing of pyramidal frustum parts using single point incremental forming process

Abstract

The incremental sheet metal forming is a flexible “die-less” process used to manufacture sheet metal parts in cold pressing domain. Especially talking about single point incremental forming, it is a process which does not require a special die to allow the sheet metal forming. To implement this process, a fixing device and a simple rounded tool are needed. The paper presents some research on the influence of a support plate upon the parts dimensional precision. Because, the main advantage of single point incremental forming process is the flexibility, in experiments, a fixing device that it was initial designed for incremental deformation of frustum cone parts, is used to deform pyramidal frustum parts. Different configurations of pyramidal frustum parts are simulated using a finite element method and a special software tool named TMPG, to check if the sheet material, deep drawing steel DC05, can be deformed without fracture. The manufactured parts are measured using a 3D scanner, and a comparison with the 3D CAD models of the original parts is made.

Common defects of parts manufactured through single point incremental forming

“…Besides all these advantages of the process, unfortunately there is still one important drawback, which is the low geometrical accuracy of the parts produced, so the current standards cannot be yet fulfilled, thus the process is still in development phase. Many researchers focused on the main factors which causes the parts produced through ISF to be uncompliant and highlighted through various papers the areas of the parts produced with the highest geometrical errors, like Essa in paper [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”