FEM RESEARCHES REGARDING INCREMENTAL FORMING PROCESS

Abstract

Abstract — Incremental sheet metal forming is a relatively new forming process that can provide a cheap way to manufacture sheet metal parts without the need of expensive dies. The goal of this research is to determine if an asymmetric incremental sheet metal forming process can be executed by means of a KUKA industrial robot. The most important aspects that have been taken into account regarding the incremental forming process done by means of an industrial robot were the forces variation, thickness reduction and the major principle strain variation. The first step in order to determine these factors was to obtain the stress-strain curve for the steel sheet used for the experimental parts. Once the stress-strain curve is obtained, a numerical simulation of the incremental sheet metal process can be performed by means of LS-Dyna software.