Numerical and experimental study of micro single point incremental forming process

Single-point incremental sheet forming (SPISF), which has clear advantages of reducing tooling cost and increasing material formability, witnessed increasing interest from both academia and industry in the last two decades. As a rapid manufacturing method, SPISF can fabricate customized parts of thin shell miniature structures flexibly and quickly. The main characteristics of this method are its high flexibility, die-less, short development time, material formability improvement and cost reduction. Comparing to 30 printing, it possesses the same virtue of 30 shaping and high-mix-low-volume manufacturing, but it also has the advantages (over 30 printing) of quicker processing time, fewer pre- and post-processing steps (i.e. heat treatment), cheaper raw material (sheet rather than powder) and higher material strength (no porosity). Although SPISF at macroscale is extensively studied, the process characteristics at microscale are less known. The project emphasizes on the combined approach using both numerical and experimental trials to study the deformation mechanisms in micro SPISF process to gain better understanding on the influence of process parameters on forming behavior. A truncated pyramid with variable half apex angle was proposed at the end of the project to serve as the standard geometry for formability test of sheet material used in this process. Comparisons made on the overall geometry of the workpiece reveal good agreement between the part obtained by simulation and that obtained during experiments.Master of Science (Mechanical Engineering