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To reduce costs associated with the manufacturing of customized products, several innovative forming processes have been developed. Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is one of these new technologies, becoming, in the past decade, more interesting for the academic and industrial community. The influence of main process parameters, namely, tool diameter, spindle speed, feed rate, and step down, is studied in depth in this paper. The maximum temperature achieved during the forming process of a truncated pyramid frustum with a circular generatrix using three nonbiocompatible and two biocompatible polymer materials is measured. Box–Behnken design of experiments and the response surface methodology have been utilized to statistically analyze the results and to provide models able to predict the maximum temperaturesThis research has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Education (DPI2012-36042), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MTM2012-33236 and MTM2015-65016-C2-1-R), the University of Girona (MPCUdG2016/036) and the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (2014 SGR551

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There has been increasing interest in the processes that enable part customization and small-batch production in recent years. The prosthetic sector, in which biocompatible materials are used, is one of the areas that requires these types of processes; Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) technology can meet these requirements. However, the biocompatible thermoplastic polymers formed by this technology have not yet been tested. Hence, the aim of this paper is to cover this gap in our knowledge by analyzing the effects of process parameters on the ISF process with the aim of optimizing these parameters before the actual production of, in this case, customized prostheses. Tests with polycaprolactone (PCL) and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were performed. Maximum force, surface roughness and maximum depth were statistically analyzed by means of response surface methodology and survival analysis. Spindle speed and tool diameter were shown to be the most influential process parameters in terms of maximum forming force and surface roughness for both materials. In contrast, survival analysis applied to maximum depth showed a greater influence of tool diameter in PCL sheets and a greater influence of spindle speed in the case of UHMWPE.

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