Rigid Body Translation In Multistage Single Point Incremental Forming

Incremental Sheet Metal Forming (ISMF) is an innovative sheet metal forming method which uses a Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) vertical milling machine & basic tooling. ISMF has the potential to form complex 3D parts without using specific tooling. The formability of sheet metal is better for incremental forming than in conventional sheet metal forming. Even though the formability is higher in ISMF, forming components having higher wall angles is not possible. So multistage ISMF is used in which the required component is formed with various intermediate stages. In this work, an attempt is made to calculate rigid body translation which has to be considered for avoiding stepped features. The Finite Element Analysis results of a cone component modelled in ABAQUS is analyzed which gives an idea about the deformation pattern and material flow.\ud Literature review indicates that it is impossible to form a vertical wall angle component in single stage Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF). When multistage strategy is used, it resulted in the accumulation of rigid body translations which resulted in the formation of stepped features at the bottom of the component. One method to eliminate this is to use a combination of out to in & in to out tool movement in intermediate stages. Calculating the rigid body translation is an important step. Rigid body translation is calculated for given intermediate profiles to avoid formation of stepped features