Investigations on Incremental Forming of Low Carbon Steel Sheets

Abstract

Low carbon steel sheets are used invariably in automobile body panels and construction structural applications. Conventional forming techniques require forming dies and heavy duty presses to make required shapes, which are costly in manufacturing. Incremental forming is a recently developing die less sheet metal part production technique in which the necessary part is obtained by gradually tracing its contours on a sheet of required thickness using stepwise tool indents. In this investigation, Low carbon steel sheets of different thicknesses were incrementally formed using a hemispherical tool under varying step depths. The final thickness of the sheet, forming angle, roughness and microhardness of the formed shapes were characterized. The microstructure of the formed materials was studied using optical microscope.

Experimental studies on incremental forming of stainless steel AISI 304 sheets

“…It was observed that the thickness of the formed components were non-uniform, as consistent with a previous study. 21 This is owing to the reason that initially the tool loads its path to form the part along the clamped surface. Hence high deformation is prevented in the clamped region.…”