Study of Single Point Incremental Sheet Metal Forming Trajectory Generation

Sheet metal single-point incremental forming technology is a fast and flexible sheet metal forming technology. The technology has great potential in multi-species, small-batch and highly flexible production. The use of contour-forming trajectory single-point incremental forming of complex-shaped parts is prone to problems such as local depression and material build-up, which seriously affects the forming performance of the product. In this paper, the relationship between forming angle and incremental arc length was established and the generation of contour trajectories was controlled based on ellipsoidal section part shapes. By using ABAQUS software, the effects of three different forming trajectories on forming quality, forming thickness, and contour variation were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the overall forming quality of the contour trajectories with equal arc lengths based on the dispersion of the lower pressure point is better, the difference between the contour of the numerically simulated model and that of the theoretical model is minimised and the overall thinning is minimised.