Robot-based additive manufacturing for flexible die-modelling in incremental sheet forming

The paper describes the application concept of additive manufactured dies to support the robot-based incremental sheet metal forming process (`Roboforming') for the production of sheet metal components in small batch sizes. Compared to the dieless kinematic-based generation of a shape by means of two cooperating industrial robots, the supporting robot models a die on the back of the metal sheet by using the robot-based fused layer manufacturing process (FLM). This tool chain is software-defined and preserves the high geometrical form flexibility of Roboforming while flexibly generating support structures adapted to the final part's geometry. Test series serve to confirm the feasibility of the concept by investigating the process challenges of the adhesion to the sheet surface and the general stability as well as the influence on the geometric accuracy compared to the well-known forming strategies.