Design and development of an aerospace component with single-point incremental forming

Single-point incremental forming has potential applications in prototyping and custom part manufacture for a range of industries including automotive and aerospace. For components with vertical walls, multiple passes are required to achieve a reasonable residual strain distribution and to accommodate large material strains without failure. In this paper, various multistage strategies were evaluated experimentally, and a complex C-channel fixture designed for aircraft vibration testing was successfully manufactured. Design guidelines for flat-base geometries are provided along with the rules for high-quality toolpath generation. A separate set of experiments was conducted comparing hemispherical and flat tools, and a flat tool was selected as being the most suitable for flat-base parts. The typical thickness variation developed in components and a geometrical error analysis are also presented. The response of the developed component to annealing and effect of this process on final geometrical errors are also reported. Cost analyses from design to development stage of the component are also presented. This work will be of practical interest to anyone seeking to bridge the gap between prototyping and large-scale production for complex flat-bottomed part geometries with single-point incremental forming.