ABSTRACT
Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) technology has evolved into an emerging arena of manufacturing during the past number of years. The set-up of ISF consists of following: forming machinery, forming-tools, ISF set-up, lubricants, CAD/CAM software, and raw material. The forming machinery for accomplishing the ISF process is one of the important elements of hardware needed for this process. Now, CNC milling machines are widely used for the ISF process due to the following: high stiffness, high load capacity, large working area, moderate feed-rate, high flexibility, and best suited for SPIF and TPIF processes. The ISF process can also be executed using heavy-duty industrial robots. The path traversed by the ISF forming-tool, relative to the workpiece surface, is chosen in the CAM software. According to the requirements of products and their material, various researchers have employed CNC milling machines, industrial robots and purpose-built machines and have considered several factors like stiffness, rigidity, load capacity, feed rate and the agility of forming machinery.
