Manufacture of an aerospace component with hybrid incremental forming methodology
- PDF / 6,516,044 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.224 x 790.955 pts Page_size
- 64 Downloads / 219 Views
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Manufacture of an aerospace component with hybrid incremental forming methodology Pranav Gupta1 · Alexander Szekeres1 · Jacob Jeswiet1 Received: 24 October 2019 / Accepted: 6 November 2020 © Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Single point incremental forming is a promising sheet metal forming technique for small batch production. However, the technique is unable to manufacture vertical walls without significant thickness variation and geometrical errors. Two-point incremental forming has the capability of manufacturing vertical walls but requires actuators and intricate rig designs. This paper presents a design facilitating vertical wall manufacturing using a die similar to that used for two-point incremental forming but without actuators. The geometry is created in six passes with a toolpath that can be generated on any leading computer-aided manufacturing software. Manufacturing with this technique reduces geometrical errors in critical areas and improves thickness distribution. This research will be of interest to anyone looking to manufacture prototypes with flat-based geometries in a cost-effective manner. Keywords SPIF · TPIF · Geometrical errors · Vertical walls · Cost analysis · Multi-stage
Introduction
Single point incremental forming
Sheet metal forming is an essential part of the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing techniques such as deep drawing and stamping have fulfilled the mass-scale demand of various industries and continue to do so in a costeffective manner. Recent years have seen exponential growth in demand for custom sheet metal components, especially in the biomedical industry where complexity is user/customer dependant. Traditional metal forming techniques are extremely reliable for complex shapes. However, traditional methods are only cost-effective when batch size requirements are large. High costs are incurred in designing and manufacturing dies. This leaves an opportunity for a manufacturing technique that can cost-effectively provide small batches of sheet metal parts.
Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) can provide small batch production and prototyping of sheet metal components in a cost-effective manner [29]. However, process limitations such as the inability to manufacture vertical walls, low geometrical accuracy, and thickness variation are barriers to widespread industrial adoption. In particular, the difficulty manufacturing vertical-walled components with SPIF is a major limitation of the process [22]. This limitation is caused by the dependence of thickness variability on the wall angle, as explained in (Fig. 1) and approximated by the sine law of shear spinning (Eq. 1) [42].
The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for the financial support. Pranav Gupta
[email protected] 1
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
tf = ti sin(90◦ − α)
(1)
where, tf is the final sheet thickness, ti is the initial thickness and α i
Data Loading...
