Investigation On Single Point Incremental Forming Process Considering Various Tool Path Definitions

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) has a great contribution in industrial practice, because the desired parts such as the small-batch production and prototype products can be manufactured just by changing the punch tools and supports. The sheet is formed into desired part using punch tools by producing local plastic deformations at the contact locations based on designed tool paths. This research work is aimed to investigate the formability of SPIF process over the numerical simulations in terms of various geometries and tool paths with varied constant depth, tool radius and feed rate test conditions. The mechanical properties of an aluminum alloy were considered and incorporated into the finite element (FE) code and further, the procedure to perform the forming process was modeled in LS-DYNA tool. To reduce computational time and eliminate the inconsistent results, the symmetry boundary conditions for symmetrical shapes were exploited and discussed. Thereafter, results achieved from the numerical simulations were compared with the desired part to make sure that the suitable FE model was developed. Discussion on the thickness distributions in terms of thinning area, thinning location and its size in percentage are presented. The thickness reduction in both geometries indicates that thinning occurs uniformly in the wall region and small fluctuation noticed near the tool retraction location. In detail, a bending region was observed with continuous thickness reduction and the desired geometry was accomplished from the base plate configuration by controlling the stretching deformation at the start of forming process.