Double-Sided Incremental Forming: A Review

Incremental sheet-forming (ISF) processes have been developed rapidly in the past two decades. Its high flexibility and easy operability have a significant appeal for industrial applications, and substantial progress has been made in fundamental understanding and demonstration of practical implementation. However, there are a number of obstacles including achievable accuracy and instability in material deformation, which are considered as a main contributing factor for preventing the ISF process to be widely used in industry. As a variant of the general ISF process, double-sided incremental forming (DSIF) uses an additional supporting tool in the opposite side of the workpiece, maintains the flexibility, and at the same time improves the material deformation stability and reduces material thinning. In recent years, there has been increased research interest in looking into DSIF-specific material deformation mechanisms and investigation. This paper aims to provide a technical review of the DSIF process as benchmarked with single-point incremental forming (SPIF). It starts with a brief overview of the current state of the art of both SPIF and DSIF. This is followed by a comparative study between SPIF and DSIF with the key research challenges identified. This leads to a recommendation of future directions for DSIF focused research.