By Paul Stockhoff- Presented at ACSA 2017
Single point incremental forming is the process in which a hardened metal stylus is attached to either a robotic arm or CNC machine and then programmed to trace the contours of a shape gradually into a deformed piece of metal, allowing for far more complex shapes than traditional forming methods. While each pass is made the piece of equipment pushes between .3mm – 1mm causing the sheet to deform into the desired geometry. During the development period of the single point incremental forming process, we identified three control variables; tool design, tool path generation, and the deformation limits of 20-gauge cold rolled steel sheets for doubly-curved surfaces.
