ISSN:
1013-9826
Source:
Scientific.Net: Materials Science & Technology / Trans Tech Publications Archiv 1984-2008
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
Notes:
Nowadays many industrial sectors use forming processes in order to produce sheet metalcomponents. The most widely used processes are stamping and deep drawing, which are based onbig, costly dies and presses. These processes require large initial investment and specific dies foreach part, which makes them inflexible and only profitable for large batches. A possible approachto small series production is based on the incremental sheet forming technique (ISF), which consistsof a gradual plastic deformation of flat sheet metal by the action of a CNC controlled tool.Equipment such as a 3-axis milling machine can be used for ISF, such that the initial investmentcosts in ISF are around 5-10% of those required to set up a production line for conventionalstamping. In its current stage of development, dedicated dies are often used as support tools in ISF.However, due to the fact that the forming forces are low in ISF, the dies can be made out of cheapmaterials like resin or wood. Although this is an additional advantage over stamping, the need touse additional tools still reduces the flexibility of the process.The present paper details the concept of a truly “dieless” incremental forming process. In theframework of the SCULPTOR EU project, the authors are working on an innovative concept ofincremental sheet metal forming which is based on the replacement of the commonly used dies by asecond forming tool which moves in a coordinated way with the first forming tool, thus creating aflexible die system, which does not depend on the specific geometry of the part to be formed.The present work summarizes the results obtained up to now in two fields: (i) the developmentof a prototype for the flexible die system to be included both in milling machines or combined withrobots and (ii) process modelling to improve the understanding of the process
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://www.tib-hannover.de/fulltexts/2011/0528/01/54/transtech_doi~10.4028%252Fwww.scientific.net%252FKEM.344.607.pdf
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