Vijitha Senaka Kiridena

Improvement of Geometric Accuracy in Incremental Forming by Using a Squeezing Toolpath Strategy With Two Forming Tools

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) is plagued by an unavoidable and unintended bending in the region of the sheet between the current tool position and the fixture. The effect is a deformation of the region of the sheet in between the formed area and the fixture as well as deformation of the already formed portion of the wall, leading to significant geometric inaccuracy in SPIF. Double sided incremental forming (DSIF) uses two tools, one on each side of the sheet to form the sheet into the desired shape. This work explores the capabilities of DSIF in terms of improving the geometric accuracy as compared to SPIF by using a novel toolpath strategy in which the sheet is locally squeezed between the two tools. Experiments and simulations are performed to show that this strategy can improve the geometric accuracy of the component significantly by causing the deformation to be stabilized into a local region around the contact point of the forming tool. At the same time an examination of the forming forces indicates that after a certain amount of deformation by using this strategy a loss of contact occurs between the bottom tool and the sheet. The effects of this loss of contact of the bottom tool on the geometric accuracy and potential strategies, in order to avoid this loss of contact, are also discussed.

Design and Verification of a New Computer Controlled Seating Buck

Appraising vehicle package design concepts using seating bucks — physical prototypes representing vehicle package, is an integral part of the vehicle package design process. Building such bucks is costly and may impose substantial burden on the vehicle design cycle time. Further, static seating bucks lack the flexibility to accommodate design iterations during the gradual progression of a vehicle program. A “Computer controlled seating buck”, as described in this paper, is a quick and inexpensive alternative to the traditional seating bucks with the desired degree of fidelity. It is particularly useful to perform package and ergonomic studies in the early stages of a vehicle program, long before the data is available to build a traditional seating buck. Such a seating buck has been developed to accommodate Ford vehicle package design needs. This paper presents the functional requirements, the high level conceptual design of how these requirements are realized, and the methods to verify, improve and sustain the dimensional accuracy and capability of the new computer controlled seating buck.Copyright

Inspection of functional free form geometry

Abstract Next Generation Shape Verification (NGSV) provides a means of comparing free form surfaces by evaluating the conformance of a physical part or die to its design intent. The design intent can be represented as a math/cad model or be obtained by scanning a “master” part using a high data density collection device such as a laser scanner.

Rapid Freeform Sheet Metal Forming: Technology Development and System Verification

Industry The RAFFT technology has applications in a number of industries that rely on the manufacturing of sheet metal products. The technology can benefit small businesses with custom products; prototyping and customization in the automotive and appliance industries; regular production and on-site repair for civilian and military aircraft components; and applications in biomedical and pointof-need products.