Optimization and investigation of process parameters in single point incremental forming

Abstract

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) process is an innovative and dies-less forming technique to produce various useful shapes for small batch size economically. This process exempts expensive and complex tooling which is used in traditional sheet forming processes. Study of forming force and thickness reduction of the components formed by SPIF process would help the process engineers to provide some guidelines regarding the implementations of this process to mainstream of manufacturing industries. In this work, seven impact factors of this process have been exploited to optimize SPIF process using Taguchi method as a design of experiment (DoE) technique. The objective of current work is to optimize the forming forces and thickness reduction of the formed conical frustums for a given set of factors for operation sustainability. The predictive models have also been generated for estimating optimal characteristics of the process. The predictive model estimated the response characteristics of the SPIF process effectively and accurately.