Experimental investigation of new blank holder approach for incremental forming method

In this study, a new method is developed to reduce the variation of the wall thickness in incremental sheet forming method used in prototype production of sheet metal parts. Unlike the traditional incremental forming method, this new method defined as “rolling blank holder incremental forming method” is aimed primarily at the force optimization of the blank holder. In this context, 27 different experimental runs were carried out with 1 mm thick DC01 sheet metal. According to the experimental results, when 2 bar pressure was applied to the pneumatic clamps that supply the clamping force, 4.5% improvement of the minimum wall thickness was observed. Clearly, a better wall thickness distribution can be obtained when this new method is used, compared to the conventional incremental forming method.