Robot-assisted incremental sheet metal forming under the different forming condition

Incremental sheet metal forming (ISF) is an emerging technology where the sheet is deformed incrementally by a stylus tool using a predefined tool path. Higher formability and process flexibility as compared to conventional forming can be achieved by this process. However, forming steeper wall angle parts in single-stage forming has been a challenging task in ISF. In this work, a robotic manipulator has been used to manipulate sheet metal with respect to tool to form steeper wall angle parts in a single stage. Process parameters have been varied to investigate the fracture limit of the sheet at steep wall angle. Effect of part inclination and part rotation using the designed manipulator on the formability of the sheet has been investigated. Analytical investigation of the effect of parameters on forming force and formability has been discussed and later validated by numerical simulation and experiments. The results show that the formability of the sheet changes by varying these process parameters. Formability can be improved by changing the part inclination and part rotation.