Experimental Investigation and Optimal Prediction of Maximum Forming Angle and Surface Roughness of an Al/SUS Bimetal Sheet in an Incremental Forming Process Using Machine Learning

Bimetal sheets have superior properties as they combine different materials with different characteristics. Producing bimetal parts using a single-point incremental forming process (SPIF) has increased recently with the development of industrial requirements. Such types of sheets have multiple functions that are not applicable in the case of monolithic sheets. In this study, the correlation between the operating variables, the maximum forming angle, and the surface roughness is established based on the ensemble learning using gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT). In order to obtain the dataset for the machine learning, a series of experiments with continuous variable angle pyramid shape were carried out based on D-Optimal design. This design is created based on numerical variables (i.e., tool diameter, step size, and feed rate) and categorical variable (i.e., layer arrangement). The grid search cross-validation (CV) method was used to determine the optimum GBRT parameters prior to model training. After the parameter tuning and model selection, the model with a better generalization performance is obtained. The reliability of the predictive models is confirmed by the testing samples. Furthermore, the microstructure of the aluminum/stainless steel (Al/SUS) bimetal sheet is analyzed under different levels of operating parameters and layer arrangements. The microstructure results reveal that severe cracks are attained in the case of a small tool diameter while a clear refinement is observed when a high tool diameter value with small step down is used for both Al and SUS layers.