Formation of hole flanges through incremental forming: A review

Abstract

Hole flanges are formed around a hole with precut hole on sheet metal, which is used for fixation and guiding cables. The present study presents a critical and concise review on the formation of hole flanges through incremental forming. Aluminum alloys, steel alloys, and polymers are used in the majority of investigations of hole flanging through SPIF. The number of stages with different tool trajectories utilized by researchers are found to be efficient as compared to single-stage hole flanging through SPIF. A variety of shapes of tool with hemispherical tooltip, high-speed tool, and new featured tool are utilized by the researchers for hole flange forming through incremental forming. Circle grid analysis is found to be a handy tool for prediction of formability in terms of forming limiting diagrams (FLD). It is found that through developed experimental set ups, cost of tooling sets and cycle time have reduced considerably. Higher formability is attained in hole flanging through SPIF as compared to conventional press working due to absence of necking. It is found that in majority of investigations, shell and solid elements are used for meshing of sheets in FEM simulation of hole flanging through incremental forming.