Single-point incremental micro-forming of thin shell products utilizing high formability

Abstract

This paper describes single-point incremental micro-forming of miniature shell products 50 m to 1000 m in size. First, the conditions of the micro-forming of a pyramid with a 1 mm square base were optimized to cause large elongation of a blank up to 128%, resulting in a tall pyramid with an elevation angle of 64 . Next, the influence of the tool rotational speed on the forming limit in forming a pyramid with a 50 m square base was investigated. It was found that the optimum rotational speed decrease with the size of a pyramid. Finally, letters and numbers 100 m to 500 m in size were formed as free form products. The effect of grain size on the miniature shell products was discussed based on the results and it was concluded that the effect must be taken into consideration in micro-forming processes of miniature products smaller than 100 m in size as far as the grain size is not very small as compared with the size of a product. Copyright © 2010 by JSME.