Tool-holder working unit used for robot-based incremental sheet forming

Abstract

The diversity of industrial robot applications is constantly growing, and their use in manufacturing processes is increasing year by year. One of the most flexible sheet metal forming process, used mainly for rapid prototyping or small series production, is represented by the single point incremental forming (SPIF). Usually, incremental sheet forming processes are performed by means of CNC milling machines or industrial robots, both having advantages and disadvantages. Due to the superior number of axes, especially when compared with 3-axis CNC milling machines, one of the most obvious advantage of the industrial robots rely upon their superior kinematic. The approach of this paper tackles the problem of designing a tool-holder working unit for SPIF process performed through a KUKA KR 210-2 industrial robot. After designing of the working unit, and simulating the tool path, the generated program code was used afterwards to successfully control the robot to obtain a truncated cone-shape part.

Incremental forming using KUKA KR210-2 industrial robot - research regarding design rules and process modelling

“…After designing the fastening system, to determine if the technical equipment and optimal parameters used in SPIF are adequate, an important step is to determine the magnitude of the forming forces. Thus, ahead experimental research, a custom-made toolholder working unit was developed [22].…”

Common defects of parts manufactured through single point incremental forming

“…The aim of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of the sheet metal blank deformed through single point incremental forming process, with focus on the sheet metal bending error. Also a mathematical model is proposed in order to evaluate the maximum deviation between the CAD profile of the part and the actual profile obtained through finite element analysis method in relation to the distance between the initial contact of the tool and retaining rings [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”