Incremental forming of sandwich panels

This paper presents a first investigation of the applicability of incremental sheet forming (ISF) to sandwich panels. Two initial tests on various sandwich panel designs established that sandwich panels which are ductile and incompressible are the most suitable for the process. Further tests on a sandwich panel with mild steel face plates and a continuous polypropylene core demonstrated that patterns of deformation and tool forces followed similar trends to a sheet metal. It is concluded that, where mechanically feasible, ISF can be applied to sandwich panels using existing knowledge of sheet metals with the expectation of achieving similar economic benefits. Potentially this will increase the range of applications for which sandwich panels are viable.