Incremental Forming – an Alternative to Traditional Manufacturing Methods

New manufacturing technologies are developed fast in order to keep up with the market demands, both in the field of metal cutting and metal forming. The Asymmetric single point incremental forming (ASPIF) is a manufacturing technology with a high degree of novelty, which allows the user to manufacture complex parts by metal forming, using only a punch and an active plate without the need of using dies. Even if there are a significant number of research results reported in the literature, which demonstrated the advantages of the ASPIF, the industry has not been very enthusiastic to adopt and implement it on large scale. There are still some drawbacks which prevent the implementation of ASPIF at industry level, such as low accuracy of the parts and sheet metal integrity. The paper presents some approaches of implementing this process using as technological equipment either CNC milling machines or serial industrial robots. Both simulation and experimental data are presented. The influence of the processing toolpaths upon the accuracy of the parts, upon the strains and the thickness reduction has been shown. The authors also proposed a set of computer assisted techniques which can be used in order to make the ASPIF process more efficient and industry-friendly.