Influence of Friction on Deformation Characteristics in Incremental Sheet Forming Process

Incremental sheet forming (ISF) process is a flexible forming technology that utilizes a simple tool to act on the sheet metal point by point and form the target part through plastic accumulation. It has the potential to provide strong technical support for rapid response prototype manufacturing at low-cost. The friction between the tool and sheet is an important parameter affecting the formability and surface quality of the process, and understanding its influence on the deformation characteristics of the sheet is an essential basis for reasonably optimizing the friction parameters and exploring forming mechanisms. Therefore, this work establishes a numerical analysis model for ISF under different friction conditions, extracts the equivalent strain and stress data during the whole forming process of arbitrary element in the contact area and shear stress of the element, and compares and analyses the average equivalent strain and stress values with the calculation results of the analytical model. It is found that the friction condition hardly affects the equivalent strain and stress values of the sheet in the contact deformation area during ISF process, but it has a significant impact on the shear stress.