Determination of Process Window of St12 Steel Sheet in Single Point Incremental Forming of a Truncated Pyramid by Experimental Method

Incremental forming is considered as one of the rapid prototyping methods and has a high degree of flexibility and cost-effectiveness at low production volume. Meanwhile, the lack of technical knowledge has challenged the use of this method in the industry. One of the things that can help the actual usage of this process is the suitable process window; a window used to determine maximum tearing depth of the sheet with respect to the material, thickness and wall angle. In this study, firstly, the formability of low-carbon steel sheet, St12, with the thicknesses of 1.25 and 1.50 mm in single point incremental forming of a truncated pyramid with different constant wall angles has been investigated experimentally. Then, it is compared with the formability of the truncated pyramid with variable wall angles under two different wall geometries. Based on the experimental results, the process windows are presented in terms of the maximum depth and wall angle and compared to each other under different circumstances. The results showed that the critical wall angle for St12 sheet in incremental forming of a truncated pyramid with a fixed wall angle differs from the pyramid with variable wall angle, but doesn't depend on the size of the pyramid base. The critical wall angle for the fixed and variable wall angle pyramids was obtained 67⁰ and 75⁰, respectively. For a pyramid with a fixed wall angle, the thickness distribution of the wall is almost constant, while for a pyramid with a variable wall, it varies along the path.