Incremental forming of hydraulic supports: a numerical and experimental study of thickness distribution

The incremental forming technology has enormous potential in manufacturing sheet parts. However, non-un8iform thickness distribution is a common technical existing issue in forming thin-walled parts using this technology. The use of hydraulic supports has been a realistic, promising solution to this issue. Based on hydraulically-supported incremental forming technology, a variety of strategies were proposed in this article for hydrostatic and variable pressure supports respectively. For each supporting strategy, the thickness distribution and materials flow laws in various forming regions were explored. Experimental and simulation results indicate that when the hydraulic pressure is less than 1.8 bar, the thickness distribution of the hydrostatic-supports is significantly better than that of conventional incremental forming, and the thickness distribution of the variable-pressure supports may be better than that of the hydrostatic-support. The hydraulically-supported incremental forming technology has an potential of enhancing enhance the thickness distribution performance and forming performance of thin-walled parts.