Abstract

Incremental sheet metal forming has been well-known as one of the flexible methods of forming metallic sheets, suitable for the production of prototypes or small batch sizes. Apprehending the deformation method in forming processes and selection of route parameters to avoid part failure are of vital importance, because marketing needs standard sound parts in a shortest possible time. This paper presents the study on the use of finite element modeling of incremental sheet metal forming of Al 1100 aluminum alloy to investigate the effect of tool diameter and step over on the forming induced stresses, part thickness distribution and forming forces. The results of finite element analysis are compared with experimental data while producing truncated pyramid parts. It has been shown that the developed finite element model is capable of providing reliable results in the prediction of the final thickness of the part, which matches the experimental results with a maximum discrepancy of 8%.