The Development of Incremental Sheet Forming from Flexible Forming to Fully Integrated Production of Sheet Metal Parts

Abstract

Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) was devised as a flexible forming process in the 1990s. The basic principle of ISF is that a generic forming tool moves along a tool path and progressively forms a metal sheet into the desired shape. The tool is either moved using CNC machines or industrial robots. Applying CNC technology or robots to sheet metal forming allows for replacing expensive dedicated tooling and for a fast transfer from the CAD model to the formed part. Since its first applications in the 1990s ISF has undergone tremendous developments. Various process variants such as double-sided ISF and hybrid process combinations such as heat-assisted ISF as well as stretch-forming and ISF have been put forward. The present contribution gives an overview of these developments with a special focus on the outcome of the research accomplished within the cluster of excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High Wage Countries”, where the development of fully integrated sheet metal production facilities is envisioned as the next evolution step of ISF. The development of dedicated equipment for hybrid and fully integrated sheet metal manufacturing and specialized CAX environments as well as applications are described to show the potential of the technology.