Investigation of the Effect of SPIF Parameters on the Thickness of Al 2024 Alloy

Abstract

Sheet metal forming is one of the most commonly used manufacturing processes because millions of different parts are formed daily. In the single-point incremental forming process (SPIF), the change in the thickness of the sheet material is an essential parameter because it is an indicator of the occurrence of failure. In this context, this study investigates the effect of SPIF parameters on the thickness of the Al 2024 alloy used in producing the truncated pyramid. The process parameters were the sheet thicknesses of (1, 1.5, and 2) mm, the step depths of (0.2, 0.4, and 0.6) mm, and the wall angles of (40, 50, and 60) degrees. A full factorial design (L27) was used to design the experimental work, and a non-destructive test method was used to measure the thickness at multiple locations on the fabricated surfaces accurately. The SPIF process was performed on the CNC milling machine by the tool path (G-code) generated in the UGS-NX9 program. The data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the relationship between the SPIF parameters and the thickness changes. The results showed that the optimum value of the thinning ratio in the thickness was achieved with a thickness of 2 mm, a step depth of 0.6 mm, and a wall angle of 40°. In this regard, previous works found that a larger step size led to pronounced thickness reduction. However, this work investigated the minimum reduction in the thickness achieved at a large step size.

Keywords

• spif process
• al 2024 sheet
• forming die
• thinning ratio
• anova