Incremental forming characteristics of hollow parts with grooves

Incremental profile forming (IPF) is a new plastic processing technology developed in recent years. The new profile manufacturing technology is mainly used to produce tubular parts with variable cross sections along the axis of tube. The parts with different cross sections produced by this technology satisfy the lightweight and high strength requirements of the tubular parts. The IPF method is very flexible and can form diverse complex-shaped parts. Because no special machine is available for this technology, depending on the shapes of formed tubular parts, the forming tool and forming method should be designed. Thus, this study proposes a new method to form the annular groove and tube wall groove. Using a special tool and servo drive system of spinning machine, it is possible to form an annular groove and tube wall groove on the surface of tubular part. This is a typical IPF method for tubes. The process of different grooves on the surface of tubes was systematically studied in this paper. Through experiments and finite element simulations, different process parameters influencing the forming quality of groove were studied. It was concluded that the tool’s single feed and spindle speed significantly affect the forming quality and forming limit.