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Double-sided incremental forming (DSIF) is a relatively new dieless forming process which uses two hemispherical ended tools, one on each side of the sheet, moving along a predefined trajectory to locally deform a peripherally clamped sheet of metal. DSIF provides greater process flexibility, higher formability, and eliminates the tooling cost when compared to conventional sheet forming processes. While DSIF provides much improved geometric accuracy compared to other incremental forming processes, current toolpath planning strategies suffer from long forming times. A novel mixed double-sided incremental forming (MDSIF) toolpath strategy is proposed in the present study. It simultaneously reduces the total forming time by half while preserving the best currently achievable geometric accuracy. The effect of the forming parameters, i.e., of the incremental depth and of tool positioning on the geometric accuracy of the parts formed with MDSIF was investigated and compared to those formed by traditional DSIF strategies.

This paper presents an in-depth experimental and numerical investigation of a split-ring test, which provides a simple yet effective benchmark for correlating forming and springback predictive capabilities with experimental measurements. The experimental procedure consists of deep drawing a circular 6111-T4 aluminum alloy into a cylindrical cup of 55mm depth, crosscutting nine rings each of 5mm wide from the cup, splitting the rings, and measuring their opening displacement, i.e., the springback amount. Experimental data obtained included punch force trajectories, drawn cup profile, thickness distribution after forming, and the ring openings after splitting. A numerical model is built to analyze the process, and both transversely isotropic and fully orthotropic yield criteria are investigated. Simulation results are validated against experimental data. A detailed numerical analysis is also conducted for stress distributions in each ring after each step and their relationship to the total springback amount. Stress and strain signatures suggested that the test is well suited for validating material models, such as anisotropic yield surface models and hardening models.

Model validation has become an increasingly important issue in the decision-making process for model development, as numerical simulations have widely demonstrated their benefits in reducing development time and cost. Frequently, the trustworthiness of models is inevitably questioned in this competitive and demanding world. By definition, model validation is a means to systematically establish a level of confidence of models. To demonstrate the processes of model validation for simulation-based models, a sheet metal flanging process is used as an example with the objective that is to predict the final geometry, or springback. This forming process involves large deformation of sheet metals, contact between tooling and blanks, and process uncertainties. The corresponding uncertainties in material properties and process conditions are investigated and taken as inputs to the uncertainty propagation, where metamodels, known as a model of the model, are developed to efficiently and effectively compute the total uncertainty/variation of the final configuration. Three model validation techniques (graphical comparison, confidence interval technique, and r2 technique) are applied and examined; furthermore, strength and weakness of each technique are examined. The latter two techniques offer a broader perspective due to the involvement of statistical and uncertainty analyses. The proposed model validation approaches reduce the number of experiments to one for each design point by shifting the evaluation effort to the uncertainty propagation of the simulation model rather than using costly physical experiments.

A bifurcation analysis of forming limits for an orthotropic sheet metal is presented in this paper. The approach extends Stören and Rice's (S–R) bifurcation analysis for isotropic materials, with materials following a vertex theory of plasticity at the onset of localized necking. The sheet orthotropy is represented by the Hill’48 yield criterion with three r-values in the rolling (r0), the transverse (r90) and the diagonal direction (r45). The emphasis of the study is on the examination of r-value effect on the sheet metal forming limit, expressed as a combination of the average r-value raverage and the planar anisotropy (Δr). Forming limits under both zero extension assumption and minimum extension assumption as well as necking band orientation evolution are investigated in detail. The comparison between the experimental result and predicted forming limit diagram (FLD) is presented to validate the extended bifurcation analysis. The r-value effect is observed under uniaxial and equal-biaxial loadings. However, no difference is found under plane strain condition in strain-based FLD which is consistent with Hill's theory. The force maximum criterion is also used to analyze FLD for verification.

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) is plagued by an unavoidable and unintended bending in the region of the sheet between the current tool position and the fixture. The effect is a deformation of the region of the sheet in between the formed area and the fixture as well as deformation of the already formed portion of the wall, leading to significant geometric inaccuracy in SPIF. Double sided incremental forming (DSIF) uses two tools, one on each side of the sheet to form the sheet into the desired shape. This work explores the capabilities of DSIF in terms of improving the geometric accuracy as compared to SPIF by using a novel toolpath strategy in which the sheet is locally squeezed between the two tools. Experiments and simulations are performed to show that this strategy can improve the geometric accuracy of the component significantly by causing the deformation to be stabilized into a local region around the contact point of the forming tool. At the same time an examination of the forming forces indicates that after a certain amount of deformation by using this strategy a loss of contact occurs between the bottom tool and the sheet. The effects of this loss of contact of the bottom tool on the geometric accuracy and potential strategies, in order to avoid this loss of contact, are also discussed.

High strength steels (HSSs) are one of the light-weight sheet metals well suited for reducing vehicle weight due to their higher strength-to-weight ratio. However, HSS tend to have bigger variations in their mechanical properties due to more complex rolling techniques involved in the steel-making process. Such uncertainties, when combined with variations in the process parameters such as friction and blank holder force, pose a significant challenge in maintaining the robustness of HSS sheet metal stamping. The paper presents a systematic and robust approach, combining the power of the finite element method and stochastic statistics to decrease the sensitivity of HSS stamping in the presence of above-mentioned uncertainties. First, the statistical distribution of sheet metal properties of selected HSS is characterized from a material sampling database. Then a separate interval adaptive response surface methodology (RSM) is applied in modeling sheet metal stamping. The new method significantly improves the model accuracy when compared with the conventional RSM within a single interval. Finally, the Monte Carlo method is employed to simulate the stochastic response of material/process variations to stamping quality and to provide optimal process parameter designs to reduce the sensitivity of these effects. The experiment with the obtained optimal process design demonstrates the improvements of stamping robustness using small-batch experiments.