Analysis of Energy Efficiency of Different Setups Able to Perform Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) Processes

Abstract Production processes, as used for discrete part manufacturing, are responsible for a substantial part of the environmental impact of products, but are still poorly documented in terms of environmental impact. The present paper proposes an energy analysis of single point incremental forming processes (SPIF). The electrical energy consumption of two different setups have been considered and compared. In particular the power demand of one of the most used machine tools architecture able to perform SPIF process, namely a CNC milling machine, has been measured. The obtained results have been compared with the ones obtained for an innovative high speed incremental forming processes perfo…

A sustainability point of view on sheet metal forming operations: material wasting and energy consumption in incremental forming and stamping processes

Abstract Sustainability and sustainable production is nowadays a wide research field due the urgency of reducing environmental burdens of industrial production. Sustainable manufacturing issues are widely investigated too. In particular, due to the relevance such issues assume for automotive and aeronautical industry, the investigation of sheet metal forming processes sustainability is worth studying and, within this research fields, a certain lack of knowledge is still present. Many studies have been presented concerning the evaluation and reduction of environmental burdens in manufacturing. In this paper, the authors focus on sheet metal forming and aim to investigate both the efficient u…

Sheet Thinning Prediction in Single Point Incremental Forming

Incremental forming processes are characterized by a well known and particular feature: any deformation across the sheet plane determines sheet thinning, since the blank is fully clamped by means of a proper equipment. As a consequence, the availability of effective and reliable CAE tools capable to supply an accurate prediction of sheet thinning as a function of process parameters, represents a strong requirement for a wider practical application of incremental forming. The already available theoretical models (i.e. the sine law) do not provide, on the other hand, satisfactory results. Therefore in the paper a couple of numerical analysis strategies was applied to simulate simple increment…

Environmental costs of single point incremental forming

Influence of some relevant process parameters on the dimensional accuracy in incremental forming: a numerical and experimental investigation

Abstract As known, incremental forming is a flexible and innovative sheet metal forming process which allows complex shape shells forming without the need for any die. For these reasons, incremental forming is nowadays suggested for rapid prototyping and customised products. The present paper is focused on material formability in incremental forming and, in particular, on the evaluation and compensation of elastic springback. The latter significantly modifies the imposed shape. For this purpose, a deeper assessment of the process was developed following three different approaches. First of all, a wide experimental investigation on the influence of some relevant process parameters was develo…

Deep drawing versus incremental forming processes: A comparative cradle to gate analysis

The evaluation and reduction of the environmental impact of manufacturing processes have become a crucial issue in the last few years, addressing the interest of industrial and academic research towards greener solutions and technologies. Reducing input materials and energy requirements has become an imperative action in the industrial practice. As a matter of fact, strong is the concern on lightweight solutions and technologies for sheet stamping operations especially in the automotive sector. However, the knowledge on how impactful such processes are is still poor. In this paper, a comparison between a traditional deep drawing and an single point incremental forming process is investigate…

On the Sustainability Evaluation in Sheet Metal Forming Processes

In sheet metal forming processes there is still a lack of knowledge in the field of environmental sustainability mainly due to the need of a proper modeling of issues and factors to be taken into account. Such topic is, nowadays, a urgent and remarkable issue in manufacturing and the main concerns are related to more efficient use of materials and energy. What is more, the estimation of environmental burdens of forming technologies is very complex to be accomplished since it is essentially process-dependent. This means that when comparing, for instance, a traditional forming process with an innovative one, there are some peculiar aspects to be considered; actually, processes can be rather d…

An experimental campaign to investigate sustainability issues in Single Point Incremental Forming processes

Sustainability issues are crucial topics in manufacturing and the environmental burdens reduction for processes is highly requested. In particular, the environmental sustainability evaluation for sheet metal forming processes is an widely investigated topic since there is still a lack of knowledge on modeling issues. The main tasks are related to a more efficient materials use and to energy savings. Moreover, forming technologies environmental impacts are essentially process-dependent. A deep analysis of the cause-effect linkages (between process and material parameters and energy consumption, for instance), within each process, would be necessary to properly model environmental impacts and…