Tool path definition for numerical simulation of single point incremental forming

Incremental sheet forming is a promising process for sheet metal prototyping and for bio-medical implants. The entire process cycle is computer integrated and part is manufactured on computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine. This process uses a spherical ended tool to press the sheet into required shape. The path of the tool is controlled by a part program generated using computer aided manufacturing (CAM) softwares. For the numerical simulation of the process tool has to follow the same path as in experimental work. But numerical simulation softwares normally do not accept the G-code file generated using CAM packages directly. In the present paper a methodology has been proposed to input the tool path trajectories generated using CAM packages in to numerical simulation softwares such as ABAQUS and Ls-Dyna. For certain sample symmetric and asymmetric shapes, this proposed methodology has been implemented in Matlab and Ls-Dyna. The results were found to he satisfactory. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.