Incremental forming is considered as one of the rapid prototyping methods and has a high degree of flexibility and cost-effectiveness at low production volume. Meanwhile, the lack of technical knowledge has challenged the use of this method in the industry. One of the things that can help the actual usage of this process is the suitable process window; a window used to determine maximum tearing depth of the sheet with respect to the material, thickness and wall angle. In this study, firstly, the formability of low-carbon steel sheet, St12, with the thicknesses of 1.25 and 1.50 mm in single point incremental forming of a truncated pyramid with different constant wall angles has been investigated experimentally. Then, it is compared with the formability of the truncated pyramid with variable wall angles under two different wall geometries. Based on the experimental results, the process windows are presented in terms of the maximum depth and wall angle and compared to each other under different circumstances. The results showed that the critical wall angle for St12 sheet in incremental forming of a truncated pyramid with a fixed wall angle differs from the pyramid with variable wall angle, but doesn't depend on the size of the pyramid base. The critical wall angle for the fixed and variable wall angle pyramids was obtained 67⁰ and 75⁰, respectively. For a pyramid with a fixed wall angle, the thickness distribution of the wall is almost constant, while for a pyramid with a variable wall, it varies along the path.
 

Incremental forming of metal sheets is one of the new methods of metal forming with high flexibility in batch production of complex geometries. Due to the absence of a matrix and the gradual applying of forming forces, the forming limit in this process is increased compared to conventional ones. In this research, formability, forming, and finally fracture of aluminum/copper bilayer sheets produced by explosive welding method in the single point incremental forming process are studied. In the numerical prediction of growth and onset of fracture of sheets in this process, the Xue-Wierzbicki damage criterion was used as the VUMAT subroutine in Abaqus software. Using the numerical model, variations of the stress triaxiality and equivalent plastic strain as the variables affecting the damage growth in the incremental forming process were analyzed and explained, and the effect of cyclic and nonlinear loading in this process was shown. Experimental results show a different failure height of various geometries due to different loading conditions. Also, using the verified numerical model, in addition to predicting crack growth location, the fracture height in the formed geometries was predicted by 4.06% difference with respect to the experimental results.

In recent years, industrial applications of composite sheets have been increasingly expanded due to their extremely different properties such as high strength, low density, and good corrosion resistance compared to single layer sheets. For this reason, in the current study, it is investigated the flanging of composite metal sheets. Also, the behavior of an aluminum-copper sheet, cladded using explosive welding, during incremental forming of a circular collar have been experimentally and numerically studied. In addition, the experimental results are used to validate the numerical simulation of the forming process. At first, in order to understand collar forming of the perforated sheet, the effect of hole diameter, forming direction or layer arrangement on dimensional accuracy, thickness distribution and forming force were investigated and then, the effect of hole flanging and collar forming were compared using two strategies. The results show that by decreasing the initial hole diameter of sheet, the average vertical maximum force increases by 9%, the minimum thickness decreases and its location shifts toward the center of sheet. Aluminum-copper arrangement also experiences a 7% reduction in average force and a 4% increase in minimum thickness due to the protective property of copper layer in tensile state compares to copper-aluminum. Besides, the multi-step method leads to a 6% minimum thickness increase due to better material flow compared to single-step method.

Incremental forming method with lower cost and more flexibility can be a suitable alternative for traditional methods of the hole-flanging. In this study, the possibility of square hole-flanging of AL1050 aluminum sheet using incremental forming method has been investigated and the quality of the pyramid flange has been compared with conical flange. The final shape of the flange is defined so that wall angle increases with raising height. The process simulation was performed using Abaqus software and an experimental test was done to validate the simulation results. After performing the experimental tests, flange features such as the final size of the hole, flange height, and wall thickness were measured. The results showed that at the created flange around the circular hole, there is less spring back and more dimensional accuracy, however, it can be flanged a square hole by incremental approach with consideration of the height and hole size. The dimensional measurements showed that the final size of the hole will increase after the hole-flanging. By investigation of the various holes, it was found that in the larger initial hole, increasing the hole size after the flanging will be lower.

Single point incremental forming is a cost-effective process with high flexibility and as a result, would be a proper selection for low-batch and high-customized production compared to traditional processes such as pressing. The target market of this process usually consists of medical, automotive, and aerospace industries in which metals with high strength to weight are highly in demand. These materials are usually formed at elevated temperatures due to their low formability at room temperature. In this study, the AA6061 aluminum sheet was homogeneously heated at 25-400°C. In addition, the effects of important process variables of heat-assisted SPIF including temperature, vertical pitch, feed rate, and three types of lubricants were investigated on formability of truncated cones with various wall angles. According to the results, despite the inability of local heating in enhancing the formability of the AA6061 sheet (37% improvement of formability under optimal conditions), the homogenous heating approach which was used in this article leads to a significant improvement in formability (528%). Temperature is the most important parameters effective on the formability, while lubricant and vertical pitch are ranked as the second and third parameters, respectively and the effect of feed rate is negligible. The critical wall angle increases from 60 to 65 degrees with increasing the temperature from 25 to 400°C. In order to choose a suitable set of parameters, the surface roughness should be taken into account, which may alter the results from 1.18 to 4µm as the best and worst surface conditions, respectively. Furthermore, a truncated cone with a wall angle of 65 degrees was successfully formed to 44mm depth using an appropriate combination of process parameters. This demonstrates an outstanding improvement in formability.