https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=3379 Index terms fr 0 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=1870 In a modern production environment, flexible manufacturing methods are important because an overall trend towards mass customization and on-demand production is observed. Kinematic and incremental forming methods with generic tools can provide a large product variation but a deeper understanding of the forming mechanisms is required for process modelling, e.g. Incremental Swivel Bending (ISB). Particularly crucial is to identify the influences on the forming zone in order to purposefully control the material flow of a forming process. For a bending process where the bending moment is transmitted by clamping tools, this paper presents a method to alter the contact pressure distribution in order to affect the angular size and strain gradient of the forming zone. In the light of these results, the presented method can be deployed for a tooling with adaptive contact pressure to directly influence material flow, in particular using generic tools to overall provide a better control of flexible forming methods. Tue, 23 Mar 2021 10:02:38 +0100 Mon, 12 Apr 2021 09:55:59 +0200 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=1870 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=4131 Niobium is a ductile transition metal of growing interest for several technological applications, thanks to its intriguing characteristics, among them high melting point, moderate density, good ductility, high corrosion resistance and superconductivity. By contrast, its use is limited by some weaknesses lied to the mechanical properties, which can undermine the quality of the surfaces worked by metal forming processes. Sheets of pure Niobium can be used for the manufacture of extremely customized components and a flexible process like the incremental sheet forming fits well with this manufacturing philosophy; in fact, this technique does not require complicated tools and/or dedicated equipment and is capable to respond quickly to the market demands. The scope of this paper is to investigate the influence of the tool/sheet contact conditions on different features like the forming loads, the surface quality and the occurrence of failures, when pure Niobium rolled sheets are formed incrementally. To this aim, the simplest variant of incremental sheet forming, namely single point incremental forming, was considered by using a common fixed end forming tool with hemispherical head. The process was carried out under dry and lubricated tool/sheet contact conditions, following the indications from a preliminary campaign of wear tests conducted by a pin-on-disk apparatus. The experimental campaign highlights the strong influence of the tool/sheet contact conditions and the importance of a correct choice of them on the features investigated, in order to limit the forming forces and the risk of failure, as well as to preserve the surface quality of the components made by incremental sheet forming of Niobium. Wed, 31 Mar 2021 09:09:19 +0200 Wed, 31 Mar 2021 09:09:19 +0200 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=4131