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.