Finite Element Analysis of hot Single Point Incremental forming of hip prostheses

Abstract

The titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is one of the most frequently used materials for biomedical applications due to its biocompatibility and excellent mechanical properties. However, wide usage of Ti-6Al-4V sheet is limited by its poor room-temperature formability. Therefore, hot Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) has been used to improve its formability. This paper aims at proving the feasibility of the hot incremental forming of an acetabular component of hip prosthesis by Finite Element simulations. The effect of process parameters, namely the forming temperature and the punch diameter on the geometric accuracy and the failure of the final product are investigated.