Experimental and Numerical Study of the Tool in Water Jet Incremental Sheet Metal Forming

Incremental Sheet Metal Forming(ISMF) is a very flexible technology for fast prototyping and small batch production of sheet metal parts. This contribution deals with an innovative variant of ISMF, where instead of a rigid tool a Water Jet(WJ) is used as the main tool. Such a process can be addressed as Water Jet Incremental Sheet Metal Forming(WJISMF). The main aim of this paper is to present the technological window for WJISMF and characterise the attributes of the WJ used as the main tool. A Finite Element Analysis(FEA) simulation was developed to simulate the impact of a WJ on a rigid surface. The FEA simulation was experimentally validated by measuring the surface pressure at the interface between the WJ and the rigid surface. Numerical results are in good agreement with those obtained experimentally.