Experimental investigations on Ultrasonic Single Point Incremental Forming USPIF

Abstract

The Incremental sheet forming (ISF) process has gained the attention of researchers in newlinethe field of sheet metal forming due to the high formability achieved in the process and newlinethe capability to produce prototypes of new products at low cost and minimum lead newlinetime. The single point incremental forming (SPIF) and two point incremental forming newline(TPIF) are the main variants of the process. The research effort is going on to enhance newlinethe capabilities of the process so that it can be accepted as a commercial production newlineprocess. In this thesis, first, the progress and recent development in the field of newlineincremental sheet forming have been reviewed and the current status of the process has newlinebeen recognized. Based on the literature review, the research gap has been identified newlineand the research objectives have been framed. newlineUltrasonic vibration has found widespread engineering applications. The use of newlineultrasonic vibrations in the machining and welding processes has reached the newlinecommercially viable stage. However, the application of ultrasonic vibrations in sheet newlinemetal forming applications is still in the research phase. This thesis addresses the newlineapplication of ultrasonic vibrations in the single point incremental forming process. The newlineset-up has been developed for the ultrasonic vibration-assisted single point incremental newlineforming (USPIF) process using the vertical machining centre. The fixture required to newlineclamp the ultrasonic stack in the spindle of the VMC machine is developed in-house. newlineThe fixtures required to form various geometrical shaped components have also been newlinedeveloped in-house. Moreover, to achieve the longitudinal mode of vibration in the tool newlinecone, its design is carried out by performing the modal analysis in the ANSYS software. newlineIn a single point incremental forming process, components are produced by moving the newlinehemispherical ended tool along the predefined tool path. The single-stage tool path newlinestrategies are used to form the components but it leads to problems related to newlineformability, geometric accuracy, and