Modeling and Experimental Analysis of Effect of Tool Geometry on Single Point Incremental Sheet Metal Forming
Dieless manufacturing process involves progressive deformation of the sheet metal using a punch (or tool). During the incremental deformation process, the sheet may or may not be supported on its back side. There are various factors that affect the process of dieless sheet forming. The objective of this work is to identify the effect of tool geometry on formability of sheet metal components in the case of single point incremental sheet metal forming. For this purpose numbers of experiments have been performed with three different tool geometries, which are spherical tool, elliptical tool tip with straight diameter and elliptical tool tip with tapered diameter. The entire exercise has also been simulated in virtual environment and a good correlation between the simulation and the experimental work is observed. It has been observed that the results of the analysis would help to improve the selection of appropriate tool and obtain better forming limit for a given sheet metal.
