Incremental sheet metal forming, which uses a CNC forming stylus, is new flexible forming process not requiring the use of any expensive dies. We have applied the incremental forming process to dental prosthesis. This new process, however, posed difficult problems. After removing the outer portion of the incremental formed sheet metal part, the inner part is distorted. In this paper, the residual stress in the sheet metal part obtained by incremental forward stretch forming operations has been examined. Numerical simulations were conducted for solid elements. When small rigid ball slides on the metal sheet with a certain vertical feed, tension residual stress is produced in the upper layer of the sheet and compression stress in the lower. Then, the resultant moments throughout the sheet cause negative spring‐back when the outer portion is removed. A systematic study of the behavior was conducted in this paper. Parameters considered included the tool radius and the vertical tool feed rate. The tip radius o...