A New Approach to Multi-Stage Incremental Forming Method

Producing vertical edged parts in sheet metal forming methods can cause tears on the sheet. The incremental forming method can allow sheet forming without tears. Forming can be done multi-stage to prevent this tear. Incremental forming method can be used in prototype production. The most important advantages of incremental forming method are that it is fast and inexpensive. In this study, we applied multi-stage forming to the two-point incremental forming-rolling blank holder method. Thus, we have developed a new way: the multi-stage, two-point incremental forming-rolling blank holder method. Parts with vertical edges are produced, and the wall thickness distribution is examined. The work material is a DC04 sheet with a thickness of 0.98 mm. The workpiece is axially symmetrical with a wall angle of 90°. The effect of four different parameters were researched: increment, feed rate, clamping pressure, and angle increment. Three different levels were determined for each parameter. The wall thickness distribution of the parts obtained from the experiments was measured.