Modeling of Incremental Forming Process Parameters of Al 3003 (O) by Response Surface Methodology

Sheet metal forming is a vital manufacturing process used in automobile, aerospace, agriculture and architecture industries. Incremental sheet forming has demonstrated its great potential to form complex three-dimensional parts without using a component specific tooling. This article reports the experimental investigations on the incremental forming of Al 3003 (O) aluminium alloy. The central composite design (CCD) was utilized to plan the experiments and Response Surface Methodology was employed for developing experimental models.The tool diameter, step depth, feed rate and spindle speed were considered as input parameters in this study. The process performances such as average thickness, wall angle and surface roughness were evaluated. The results of analysis of variance indicated that the proposed mathematical models obtained can effectively describe the performances within the limits of factors being studied. The experimental values were in good agreement with the predicted values.