Double-Sided Incremental Forming Tool With Adaptive Contact Tip
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional double-sided incremental forming tools face challenges in maintaining accurate contact with workpieces due to errors from simulation assumptions, machine stiffness variations, and thickness mismatches, leading to reduced accuracy and damage during the forming process.
Innovation Solution
A forming tool design featuring a sleeve with a spring-biased contact member and bearing members that allow for rotational and translational movement, ensuring the working tip remains in contact with the workpiece by accommodating misalignment and providing the necessary stiffness to prevent loss of contact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional tools use rigid contact members, then structural simplicity is maintained, but contact accuracy is lost due to misalignment and stiffness variations
Solution Approach 1:
The contact member is designed with dynamic capabilities through bearing members that enable rotational and translational movement. This allows the contact member to adapt its position and orientation during the forming process, maintaining accurate contact with the workpiece despite misalignment or stiffness variations, while avoiding the complexity of active control systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The tool enables changes in the contact member's positional parameters through the bearing members. The contact member can translate and rotate to adjust its location and orientation, compensating for alignment errors and maintaining precise contact with the workpiece surface throughout the forming process.
2Reliability
If the contact member is fixed rigidly, then device complexity is reduced, but contact is lost due to misalignment errors during forming
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing members provide dynamic adjustment capabilities, allowing the contact member to move rotationally and translationally to maintain reliable contact with the workpiece. This passive adaptive mechanism ensures continuous contact without requiring complex active control systems or sensors.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact member automatically adjusts its position and orientation through the bearing members in response to misalignment or contact loss. This self-adjusting mechanism maintains reliable contact without requiring external intervention, control systems, or additional sensors.
3Reliability
If displacement control is used to clamp and move tools together, then contact is maintained, but material damage occurs due to squeezing and stretching
Solution Approach 1:
The contact member dynamically adjusts its position and orientation through rotational and translational movement enabled by the bearing members. This allows the tool to maintain contact through adaptive positioning rather than through clamping forces, avoiding material damage from squeezing and stretching.
4Productivity
If the contact member is constrained to fixed position, then device complexity is reduced, but friction increases and contact is lost during movement
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing members enable the contact member to rotate and translate during the forming process, reducing friction by allowing the contact point to adapt to surface variations. This dynamic adjustment maintains efficient forming operations without requiring complex active control systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The tool effectively maintains contact with the workpiece during the forming process, reducing friction and preventing damage by allowing the working tip to rotate and translate, thus improving the accuracy and quality of the formed parts by addressing errors and stiffness mismatches.
Implementation Method 1
A spring is positioned within hollow interior space of the sleeve. The contact member is biased outward away from the sleeve by the spring.
Implementation Method 2
Bearing members act on the contact member and provide for rotational and translational movement of the contact member relative to the mount.
Data Source
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AI summary
A tool for use during double sided incremental forming of a workpiece. The tool includes a sleeve with a hollow interior space. A contact member is positioned within the hollow interior space of the sleeve. The contact member is sized with a working tip positioned outward beyond the sleeve to contact against a workpiece. A mount is positioned on the opposing end of the sleeve and configured to connect to a tool holder. The tool is configured to provide for translational and/or rotational movement of the contact member. The axial and rotational movement provides for the working tip to remain in contact with the workpiece during the forming process.