Experimental and Simulation Study of Single Point Incremental Forming of Polycarbonate

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) is more accurate and economical than the conventional forming process for customized products. Majority of the work in SPIF has been carried out on metals. However, polymers are also required to shape. Polycarbonate has wide application in safety glass, bottles, automotive and aircraft industry due to its transparent as well as attractive processing and mechanical properties as compared to other polymeric plastics. In present work, the Polycarbonate (PC) sheet of thickness 1.8 mm is deformed to make a square cup at different angles. Tensile testing is done to analyze the effect of wall angle on the deformed cup. This work illustrates the effect of the SPIF process on material strength in a different directions(vertical and horizontal) of the final deformed product. Tool forces are evaluated using ABAQUS (R) simulation for SPIF. Numerical simulation approach is used to calculate the fracture energy, which utilizes the force-displacement curve of the specimen and is verified.