Improvement of Formability in Single Point Incremental Forming of DP 1000 Steel by Induction Heating

This paper provides results from experiments to improve formability of DP 1000 steel in forming a complex profiles in single point incremental forming with induction heating. High attention is rewarded to the straight effect of induction power and tool settings, in order to determine if the heating temperature is sufficient for raising the formability. The steel sheet is formed by a punch in the upper side and synchronized by induction heating for the sheet on the lower side. Investigations show a maximum achievable wall angle of 70°, which was accomplished at 20 kW induction power for the two formed shapes pyramid and cone. The operational efficiency improved by reducing both the forming time and the induction power required obtaining an optimum heating temperature for the sheet blank. The presented method can be used to increase the formability of difficult-to-form metals by using a simple setup.