Asymmetric incremental sheet forming system
AssigneeK.U. Leuven Research & Development
InventorsBart Callebaut, Joost Duflou, Johan Verbert
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Abstract
The present invention relates, in general, to sheet material forming technology and the forming of structures there from. The invention relates to incremental forming of sheet material (1) with localised heating (5) and more particularly to a system and method for incrementally forming a sheet blank (1) that is at the same time heated by a dynamically moving heating source (5). This dynamic and localised heating locally changes the mechanical properties of the sheet material (1), thus facilitating the forming process.
Claims20
A sheet forming apparatus comprising at least one clamping system for holding a sheet material and at least one forming tool whereby the forming tool and the sheet material are movable relatively towards each other in three dimensions to plastically deform a contact zone that moves on the sheet material along at least one defined contact toolpath corresponding to a defined three dimensional shape of the sheet material to be formed, wherein the apparatus further comprises an asymmetric incremental sheet forming apparatus which comprises at least one heat source arranged to locoregionally provide a heat flux to the sheet material to form a moving heating zone and to increase the plasticity of the sheet material along the at least one contact toolpath of the forming tool, the incremental sheet forming apparatus further comprising at least one cooling means to cool a zone of sheet material adjacent to the contact zone of the forming tool or adjacent to the moving heating zone on the at least one contact toolpath.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.