Modelling of the effects of process parameters on energy consumption for incremental sheet forming process

Incremental sheet forming (ISF), as a flexible rapid prototyping technology, has great potential in the production of small-volume complex sheet parts. The research on the energy consumption of ISF is beneficial to the determination of the most energy-saving process parameters. First, the total power of the machine tool is broken down into standby power, feed axis power and sheet forming power, which is also theoretically analyzed, respectively. Apart from the modeling of the standby power and feed axis power, a theoretical mechanism model for sheet forming power during the ISF process is established based on the contact area and the flow condition of sheet. Then, experiments at the standby state, idle feed state, air forming state and actual processing state are carried out respectively to determine the essential coefficients of the theoretical model. In addition, the processing power prediction model in ISF is obtained and the prediction accuracy is verified through experiments. The results confirmed that the power prediction error of the processing power is below 5%. Moreover, the effects of process parameters (forming tool radius, step down, sheet thickness, feed rate) on processing power, power efficiency, processing energy and energy efficiency are comprehensively analyzed. Finally, the optimal combination of process parameters for the lowest energy consumption is obtained.