Study of Incremental Sheet Forming of Aluminum Alloy AA1100

Sheet metal components are widely used in many industries. One of the major reasons behind this is the ease with which metal is displaced into required shapes by plastic deformation where volume and mass of material are conserved. In case of custom made part or small batch production the conventional forming with dies is not feasible. In this case for rapid prototyping or small quantity of products Incremental Sheet Forming can be used. In this method the sheet is clamped in a fixture or any other suitable arrangement and a tool is passed over the sheet. The path of the tool is controlled using a CNC system or robot manipulator. The tool imposes local plastic deformation on sheet. Thus the sheet is formed incrementally to required shape with motion of tool. In this research work effect of four process parameters namely wall inclination, tool diameter, step size and rotational spindle speed are tested on incremental forming of aluminium alloy AA1100. The parameters of interest forresponse are surface finish and thickness distribution within formed component. Moreover the accuracy of the process and formability of alloy was also tested.