Investigation of dimensional accuracy in incremental sheet metal hammering process: a parametric study

With the increasing demand for low-volume production, the incremental forming process is developed as a rapid prototyping method. Incremental sheet metal hammering method has been used in recent years. In this process, a sequence hammer moving over a clamped Aluminum sheet and a three dimensional workpiece can be produced by using a simple die. In this paper, the influence of the punch diameter on the dimensional accuracy was studied. This component was divided to four sections: thickness, overall geometry, surface quality and spring-back. By using the image processing and roughness tester, the values of results were obtained and analyzed. The results had revealed that the surface roughness and spring-back were decreased by decreasing the punch diameter. Overall geometry was deviated from the ideal shape by increasing the punch diameter.