Chapter 3. Incremental Sheet Forming

Abstract

Several innovative forming processes have been developed in order to produce highly customized products with a reasonable manufacturing cost. Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is one of these new technologies, and it has gained importance in the last years, becoming the focus of interest for many researchers and institutions. This chapter provides a deeper insight of the process in terms of different variants of the technology; formability; deformation mechanisms; the most influencing process parameters, and future trends. It describes the most common variants of the ISF processes: single point incremental forming (SPIF) and two point incremental forming (TPIF). Additionally, the chapter summarizes a review of other ISF variants developed to improve the process' performance in terms of accuracy or formability. It also presents a case study aimed at the examination and comparison of performance between the two main ISF variants, SPIF, and TPIF on a scaled prototype of a biopsy micro forceps jaw