Incremental sheet forming for prototyping automotive modules

Actually, in many industrial applications, like automotive industry, mass decreases and fuel economy constitute very important features. Light alloys are extensively used in automotive applications and simultaneously, the constant industrial progress forces low-cost innovative machining routes to be used after the manufacturing process oriented to transform the product into a right shape with high accuracy of the geometry and good surface quality. In this paper, a general overview of the actual state-of- the-art about the Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is presented including some experimentally results of the current research in this field performed by the authors. The target of the research is oriented on the validation of the possibility to use a common milling machine, as ISF apparatus, and to find the most suitable process parameters to be assumed for the production of automotive sheet made by Ti alloys.