A novel approach for temperature control in ISF supported by laser and resistance heating

Aeronautical applications often require small batches of large-scale sheet metal parts made from titanium and its alloys. Due to the low formability of titanium at room temperature, warm forming processes are necessary. Incremental sheet metal forming (ISF) is suitable for production of prototypes and small batches as well as large-scale parts. A short review of the experimental work done by international scientists in the field of warm ISF including stationary and moved temperature sensors will be presented mostly applied from the backside of the sheet metal. The present paper shows a new approach for a tool setup including a thermocouple inside of the tool. Hence, the sensor for temperature measurement was moved with the forming zone. Furthermore, a suitable closed loop control including a PID controller will be presented. The characteristics of the controller will be discussed. By means of two different warm ISF processes (ISF with resistance heating and laser-assisted ISF), the applicability of the developed setup will be analysed and evaluated. It will be shown that the experimental setup is capable to ensure minimal temperatures needed to ensure adequate formability of Ti grade 5.