Systems and methods for forming a workpiece are disclosed. The system may include a fixture assembly for receiving a workpiece having opposing first and second surfaces, first and second tools, and a vibration source configured to vibrate the first and/or second tool. The first and second tools may be configured to move along first and second predetermined paths of motion as the first and/or second tool is vibrated by the vibration source and may exert force on the first and second surfaces to form the workpiece. The method may include vibrating a tool using a vibration source and moving the vibrating tool and another tool along first and second forming paths to form the workpiece. The vibration source may be an ultrasonic transducer and may vibrate the tool at a frequency of at least 1 kHz.

A method of incrementally forming workpiece is provided by the present disclosure. In one form, the method includes securing a sacrificial material layer to at least one surface of the workpiece, imparting a force directly to the sacrificial material layer with at least one forming tool, and incrementally forming the workpiece to a desired geometry based on a tool path of the forming tool.

A method of making a sheet metal component from a tailored blank includes altering an initial blank formed from a first material to form the tailored blank by at least one of (i) coupling additional material to a portion of the first material, and (ii) removing the first material from a portion of the initial blank. The method also includes forming the sheet metal component from the tailored blank by an incremental sheet forming process.

Novel systems and methods for an incremental forming process to manufacture a product are disclosed herein. The system and method generally involves continuously modifying the toolpath in real-time based upon the forming force of the forming tool compared to a predicted springback error established offline from a series of simplified simulations. The system and method disclosed herein are effective to form products with complex geometries and minimizes the costs and time requirements associated with prior art techniques.

An tool for the incremental forming of material sheeting is disclosed. The tool comprises a forming tip, a shank, and an interface adapter positioned between the forming tip and the shank. The forming tip has a diameter and the shank has a diameter. The diameter of the forming tip is greater than the diameter of the shank. The forming tip may be of a variety of configurations. The forming tip may be donut-shaped. The donut-shaped tip may have a recessed area formed therein. The recessed area may be frustoconically shaped. As an alternative to the forming tip being donut-shaped, the forming tip may be made up of at least two forming spheres. An adapter is provided to which the spheres may be attached either directly or by arms. The diameters of the spheres may be the same or may be different diameters.

The present invention relates to methods of working sheet metal, and sheet metal working apparatus for performing such methods. Such methods include steps of providing a sheet metal workpiece having first and second surfaces opposed to each other and at least one edge, bending the workpiece to form at least a first sidewall portion defined between the edge and a basal region, the first sidewall portion thereby defining a curved fold region in the sheet metal workpiece adjacent the first sidewall portion. Following this, first anvil tool and a first forming tool are provided for contact with and constraint of the first and second surfaces of the sheet metal workpiece respectively. The forming tool and/or the anvil tool are then progressively slid along the curved fold region to cause shear material transfer in the curved fold region to further deform the curved fold region. Such methods can allow for formation of components of similar shape as made at present by deep drawing methods, but with less wastage of the starting material.

A device and a method are provided for shaping sheet metal. The device is provided with a plurality of support and clamping elements which are designed to cooperate with one another so as to clamp the sheet metal for a shaping process by mechanically contacting the sheet metal and by holding, orienting, and/or positioning processes. A plurality of actuators are designed to orient and/or position the plurality of support and clamping elements. A controller for the actuators is designed to control the plurality of actuators for adjusting the orientation and/or position of the support and clamping elements.

Provided is a method for manufacturing a tubular rotary component from a donut-shaped metal disc, wherein the generation of wrinkles or cracks due to a drawing process can be suppressed. This method for manufacturing a tubular rotary component 100B includes: an intermediate molding step in which the entirety of both surfaces of a donut-shaped metal disc 100 having a prescribed inner diameter D.sub.1 and outer diameter D.sub.2 are pressed by the respective tapered surfaces of a punch 10A and a die 20A provided with a prescribed taper to carry out bore-expansion drawing, thereby obtaining a frustoconical intermediate molded article 100A; and a final molding step in which the intermediate molded article 100A is pressed by a punch 10B and a die 20B having a desired shape to carry out bore-expansion drawing again, thereby obtaining a tubular rotary component 100B.

A process for forming a sheet metal component. The process includes rigidly clamping a piece of sheet metal to a clamping fixture and plastically deforming the sheet metal to produce a shaped component during a first manufacturing step. The shaped component has a first amount of springback. During a second manufacturing step, a pair of electrodes applies one or more pulses of electrical current at one or more locations on the shaped component while the shaped component is still rigidly clamped to the clamping fixture during. The one or more pulses of electrical current applied to the shaped component provide an electrically-assisted manufactured (EAM) shaped component. The EAM shaped component has a second amount of springback that is less than the first amount of springback.

A process includes producing a group of automotive components by forming components having various global geometries via a common tooling configured to bend a blank sheet of metal to create a variable cross section profile, forming an addendum as an integral portion of each formed component, and altering the global geometries in a series of incremental deformations to create local geometries while each component is affixed to a deforming machine via the addendum.