Flexible sheet metal forming processes represent one of the most relevant industrial issues of the scientific research. Incremental Sheet Forming is one of the most promising answers for many production scenarios. In particular, it becomes competitive when the production lot size decreases and the production variability increases. The process is basically set up on numerically controlled machines: a blank is clamped at its border and progressively deformed by a punch that moves according to a proper tool path program, reproducing the final part shape. Thus, the manufacturing time is directly dependent on the tool path length. Up to now, this aspect is one of the reasons why a systematic industrial application is not permitted. To overcome this drawback, an experimental investigation was planned in order to evaluate how the process is affected changing the cycle time. More in detail, an extended experimental investigation on the influence of process speed (i.e. tool rotation speed, tool feed) and other process parameters was executed taking into account a relatively simple 3D component. An accurate analysis of the obtained parts was performed, with particular attention to the thinning distribution that, of course, influences the material failure. Finally, the surface quality was also measured as an output variable.
An Experimental Investigation on Thinning and Formability in Hybrid Incremental Sheet Forming Process