Incremental Sheet Forming by Multiple Simultaneous Forming Zones (MPIF)

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. A. Erman Tekkaya
• Subject Area: Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 229845644

The incremental sheet forming (ISF) is a forming process for the production of hollow parts with nearly any design freedom. Compared with common sheet metal forming processes, such like deep drawing, a major drawback of the ISF is the long processing time. Hereby the production of parts takes place in small forming zones. The production of a complete part is gradual.The objective of this research project is to shorten the process time by simultaneous forming in separate forming zones. For this, a tool prototype has been developed by the IUL and was patented [Tek09]. The tool prototype consists of two forming tools, which can be moved simultaneously. The preliminary tests show a high potential for saving process time. To realize the potential of the process time by increasing the number of tools, however, fundamental research is indispensable. This need is substantiated by modified part properties as well as the lack of process design basics for this novel process variant. These principles are to be mainly developed by experimental methods in the project, whereas, in addition, numerical methods are supportingly used.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants