Incremental Sheet Forming Simulation of Aluminum Alloys for Industry Level Production

Abstract

The Single point incremental sheet forming process known as a SPIF process. Which got a great attraction among other existed sheet metal forming processes because of their flexibility to manufacture complex products. The aluminum alloy material mechanical properties are adopted and integrated into the finite element (FE) code. The tool paths for the truncated cone shape are modeled in Fusion 360 software, and the coordinates are converted into 3D punch tool coordinates by the tool path generation framework tool for modeling the numerical simulation. In numerical modeling, three kinds of mesh settings are used to construct the mesh for producing consistent results. Afterward, the obtained results are tested against the experimental observations and the desired parts dimensions to verify the accuracy of the established FE model. Thickness variations in the formed parts are discussed in detail in terms of the thinning part, thinning location, and its size in percentage. A comparison of tested geometries displays that reduction in thickness tends to be uniform in the wall region and small fluctuation noticed near the tool retraction location. Overall, the statistical results of the SPIF process are well in contract with the experimental measurements. In terms of geometry dimensions and thickness reduction. In addition, the surface roughness was noticed to be increased when the step size is more extensive, and on the other hand, the machining time tends to be more if the contour step size is small in the SPIF process.