Application of Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) Toward Biomedical and Medical Implants

With the recent advances in engineering technology, the requirement of customized implants is being fulfilled with accuracy and precision which results in improving quality and expectancy of life. A facial implant acts as a boon for patients having certain facial features congenitally missing, to patients who have lost their facial features following an accident or disease, and helps in restoring normal appearance. The manufacturing of customized implants is made easy by the introduction of the technique known as incremental sheet forming (ISF), which is a featured flexible forming technique that enables plastic deformation of blanks without resorting to any specific die or punch. The main features of ISF include low cost, high customization, and small quantity production which overcomes the limitations of traditional fabrication methods and are more suitable for the manufacturing process of biomedical implants. This review highlights the overview of ISF, materials used for the production of implants, the application of ISF in the production of biomedical and medical implants, and the challenges and future scope of the ISF process are also enumerated.