Basic investigations of the incremental sheet metal forming process on a CNC milling machine

Conventional sheet metal forming processes require part-dependent tooling, leading to significant time and cost investments. In response to the growing variety of sheet metal parts, flexible forming processes are being developed. Incremental Sheet Metal Forming (ISMF) is an emerging technology that utilizes mostly part-independent universal tooling, enhancing flexibility and reducing product development time, making it ideal for low-volume production. The ISMF process involves forming a desired shape on a fixed support tool using a small active forming tool. This dissertation aims to explore ISMF with various flexible supporting strategies to gather foundational information for developing the Kinematical Incremental Sheet Metal Forming (KISMF) process. Tool path optimization is a key variable in this process, leading to the study of different tool paths to identify their unique advantages. Experiments were conducted using a CNC milling machine and a general-purpose CAD/CAM system, focusing on optimizing process variables to produce high-quality parts with minimal tooling. The research revealed suitable process variables and tool paths for different shapes, emphasizing the importance of thickness distribution influenced by apex angles. Techniques for achieving competitive part quality with simple flexible supports were also explored. The study concluded with insights for realizing the KISMF process and outlined directions for p