Ultrasonic-Assisted Incremental Microforming of Thin Shell Pyramids of Metallic Foil

Single point incremental forming is used for rapid prototyping of sheet metal parts. This forming technology was applied to the fabrication of thin shell micropyramids of aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium foils. A single point tool used had a tip radius of 0.1 mm or 0.01 mm. An ultrasonic spindle with axial vibration was implemented for improving the shape accuracy of micropyramids formed on 5–12 micrometers-thick aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium foils. The formability was also investigated by comparing the forming limits of micropyramids of aluminum foil formed with and without ultrasonic vibration. The shapes of pyramids incrementally formed were truncated pyramids, twisted pyramids, stepwise pyramids, and star pyramids about 1 mm in size. A much smaller truncated pyramid was formed only for titanium foil for qualitative investigation of the size reduction on forming accuracy. It was found that the ultrasonic vibration improved the shape accuracy of the formed pyramids. In addition, laser heating increased the forming limit of aluminum foil and it is more effective when both the ultrasonic vibration and laser heating are applied.