Finite element analysis of incremental sheet metal forming process on complex shapes

Incremental Sheet Metal Forming (ISMF) is a flexible manufacturing process requiring minimum tooling setup. Practically, this process could be used to manufacture complex parts. However, the existing literature focuses on optimizing the ISMF parameters for simple shapes without considering the part’s complexity. In the present work, finite element analysis (FEA) is adopted to investigate the effect of process parameters on the quality produced by ISMF. A finite element model for a conical part is developed and validated against published experimental data. The comparison between the simulation and experimental results confirmed the accuracy and reliability of the developed model. The validated model is then used to check the applicability of the validated process parameters to complex shapes. Results have shown that the complexity of the part significantly affects the forming limit diagram (FLD). Complex shapes consisting of an elliptic part and elliptic then conical part show a median FLD value of 0.37, while a conical part and conical then elliptic part show median FLD values of 0.21 and 0.22, respectively. Results have shown that the success of the proposed process parameters depends on the complexity of the part and the interaction between different process parameters.