Improvement strategies for the formfilling in incremental gear forming processes

Incremental Sheet-Bulk Metal Forming offers an innovative and flexible approach for the manufacturing of gears. An insufficient formfilling of the generated gearing, especially of the first tooth formed, is observed. Aiming for a formfilling improvement of the first tooth element, three influencing factors were investigated. First, the prevailing friction is analyzed and a possibility for its adjustment is offered by a tailored adaption of the tool surface topographies. These were manufactured by micromilling, EDM and polishing processes and partially covered by CrAlN PVD-coatings. Based on ring-compression tests, which were performed to determine the resulting friction conditions, the analyzed topographies were transferred onto real tool surfaces and used in the incremental gear forming process. Second, the influence on the formfilling of the blank cutting process and the resulting sheet edge properties were investigated. The third aspect to enhance the formfilling of the gear elements was the modification of the process strategy of the incremental forming process. Due to different conditions for the initial and the following indentations, a preforming operation was investigated in order to realize a similar material flow for all indentations. With the combination of the best parameters regarding the tool surface, the blank cutting process and the forming strategy, an improvement of the formfilling of the first formed gear element by up to 33% and for the following gears by up to 13% was achieved.