Putting in place circular economy strategies is an urgent challenge to face. In this scenario, manufacturing processes play a relevant role as efficient material reuse enabler. Scientists have to make an effort either to find new process or to rethink old process to reprocess end-of-life (EoL) component to recover both material and functions. In this paper, single point incremental forming (SPIF) process is used for reshaping sheet metal EoL components. The entire process chain was replicated including both deep drawing process (to imitate the end-of-life component) as well as SPIF operations (to obtain the reshaped components). The geometrical deviation as a consequence of SPIF operations was studied; two different SPIF directions (named inwards and outwards) were analyzed. A wide experimental campaign along with statistical analyses was developed to analyze effects of some geometrical parameters on the observed geometrical deviation. The results are promising as limited distortions were observed and sound components were obtained in all the analyzed process configurations. Despite that, some research is still needed to better standardize the reshaping process and bring it closer to an industrial applicability.
The adaption of Circular Economy strategies has become increasingly necessary in current times. Researches need to be addressed on finding alternative processes or the modification of the existing processes in order to reprocess End-of-life (EoL) components, and consequently recover both materials and their functions. This research paper focuses on the use of Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) process for the Reshaping of sheet metal EoL components. Uniaxial and Biaxial pre-straining was performed on AA5754 sheets to imitate an End-of-Life component, and SPIF operations were carried out so as to obtain reshaped components. In previous works the authors have proven the technical feasibility of the said approach. The present work is focused on analyzing the possible variation in formability as well as in geometrical accuracy of SPIF process when utilized to reform components. An experimental campaign involving the variation of the pre-straining levels as well as the type (uniaxial and biaxial) was developed and the resulting formability and geometrical accuracy of the subsequent SPIF operations were then analyzed. Results showed that SPIF is a perfect candidate as Reshaping process. In fact, a very limited reduction in formability as well as the no worsening in geometrical accuracy performance was observed on the different pre-straining paths here analyzed.
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