Re-forming end-of-life components through single point incremental forming

Abstract

Applying Circular Economy strategies is mandatory to face material demand while minimizing the environmental impact. Manufacturing processes are to be thought as means to enable material/component reuse strategies. This paper presents the suitability of Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) to re-form End-of-life sheet metal components. Deep drawing followed by SPIF process on aluminium alloys were carried out to simulate reforming processes chain. The resulting thinning and strain distributions were experimentally analysed for different configurations. The research proves that the local action and enhanced formability nature of SPIF allow non-homogeneously thinned and reduced formability parts to be successfully re-formed.