A novel strategy for improvement of sheet thickness distribution in incremental sheet metal forming process

The incremental forming process which can be used in low quantity production of the components is a relatively new forming process for sheet metal components. One of the problems of this method is thinning and non-uniform thickness distribution of the component in radial direction. In the incremental forming process, the sheet thickness in the wall of the formed cup is reduced considerably while the thickness in the bottom of the formed cup is unchanged. This problem is hindering the wide application of the incremental forming process in the industry. In this paper, a new method is presented for the improvement of the thickness distribution in the incremental forming process. In the presented method, a new preform is added to forming stages which reducing the sheet thickness in the bottom of the formed cup, increases the minimum thickness in the wall of the formed cup and improves its thickness distribution. The incremental forming process are simulated using the software ABAQUS and verified using the experiments available in the literature. Then the proposed method is simulated which its result indicates the capability of the presented method in thickness improvement.