Single Point Micro Incremental Forming of Miniature Shell Structures

This paper describes single point micro incremental forming (SPMIF) applied to the fabrication of meso-scale shell structures. The authors have developed SPMIF without using any die and backing plate for flexible micro forming of miniature 3D products in a range of micro meters to sub-millimeters. A desk-top type of CNC milling machine was constructed as an experimental apparatus. Thin aluminum foils of different thickness and thin round tip bars of different diameters were utilized as blanks and forming tools, respectively. Some basic shapes and complex shell structures of micro shell structures were formed in the established SPMIF system. Through the experiments, it was proved that the SPMIF system established in this study can be widely applied to the forming of micro shell structures in various shapes.