Electric hot incremental forming: A novel technique

in the current work, a new method is proposed for hot incremental forming. The method is based on simple tooling and is easy to employ. it makes use of electric current for heating hard-to-form sheet metals at the tool-sheet interface in order to fully utilize the formability of these materials. The potential effect of processing parameters, namely current, tool size, feed rate and step size, on the formability are investigated using AZ31 magnesium. In addition to this, the shape distortion of TiAl2Mn1.5 titanium workpiece after hot forming has also been addressed herein. Experimental results demonstrate that this technique is feasible and easy to control. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.