Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72

Experimental study on force measurements

for single point incremental forming
Joost Duflou ∗ , Yasemin Tunçkol, Alex Szekeres, Paul Vanherck
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300B, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Received 24 October 2005; received in revised form 29 December 2006; accepted 11 January 2007

Abstract
An experimental platform capable of measuring forces in process during an incremental forming procedure is described and some of the earliest
measurements of forces in incremental forming with the changes induced on the measured load are reported. Using a table type force dynamometer
with incremental forming fixture mounted on top, three components of force were measured throughout the forming process. They were found to
vary as the parts were made. The reported experimental test program was mainly focused on the influence of four different process parameters on
the forming forces: the vertical step size between consecutive contours, the diameter of the tool, the steepness of the parts’ wall and the thickness
of the sheet metal being formed. The effect of lubrication and the geometry of the test part in the incremental forming process were investigated
by a set of initial experiments. Part failure prediction based on the shape of the force curve is explained. For the tested materials, analytical results
demonstrating the relationship between the respective process parameters and the induced forces are presented in this paper.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Force; Prototyping; Incremental forming; Experimental design

1. Introduction
High volume production runs have dominated industrial sheet
metal forming. Most applications require that deep drawing or
stamping be used to produce thousands of parts quickly but
only with great initial capital investment [1]. Products will con-
tinue to be manufactured in large numbers in this way, but
there remains the need to produce prototypes during the early
stages of development, and because the cost of producing dies
is great, a more flexible process must be sought. It should be
capable of creating parts quickly after they have been con-
ceptualised and allow a change of the conceived shape to be
immediately captured in another prototyped part, and this should
be accomplished with minimum cost. Furthermore, incremental
forming can produce parts in sheet metal instead of polymers,
which current rapid prototyping processes typically rely upon
[2].
To fulfill this need, much research has been devoted to the
development of rapid prototyping techniques and processes. One
such process is single point incremental forming, which employs
conventional CNC machinery to fashion complex geometries
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 16 322845; fax: +32 16 322986.
from ordinary sheet metal [3]. It is possible to form parts that
are usually deep drawn or stamped without any supporting dies
[4]. The punch is a simple smooth ended tool with a diameter far
smaller than the dimension of the part being made. It is moved
along contours, which follow the shape of the final geometry as
described by CAD and CAM software. Upon completion of a
contour the tool is moved to greater depth and the stylus like tool
traces the next contour. Step by step the concept takes a physical
form as a sheet metal part [5].
Unfortunately, this process is still early in its development and
requires much more research to reach a point where accuracy
becomes comparable to some of the strictest industry standards.
Achievement of this goal will not be possible without better
understanding of the process mechanics and influencing param-
eters. The force required for forming has consequences in the
design of tooling and fixtures, and also for the machinery used.
Being able to predict the magnitude of the forces between tool
and workpiece is of importance for the development of process
models for single point incremental forming as well: the scale of
the local plastic deformation, typical for this process, depends
on this factor.
This paper investigates the effects of four commonly varied
process parameters on the force required to form the sheet metal.
These are the tool diameter, vertical depth increment, steepness

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.01.005
66 J. Duflou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72
Fig. 1. The experiment setup: (a) exploded view of forming fixture with formed cone; (b) the forming fixture with the force sensor mounted on the machine table.
of the parts wall or wall angle and the thickness of the sheet
metal.
2. Experimental platform
Experiments were carried out using a 3-axis CNC vertical
milling machine. Mounted on it was a steel fixture in which
the sheet metal could be clamped such that no material may
flow into the forming area (Fig. 1(a)). Between this fixture and
the milling machine work-surface a table type force sensor was
mounted (Fig. 1(b)). This was a Kistler 9265B six-component
force dynamometer and connected to it was a complementary
Kistler 5017A 8-channel charge amplifier. With these appara-
tuses the forces exerted upon the part by the tool were recorded
on a computer based data acquisition system.
3. Tested materials
The material used to investigate the effects of the tool diam-
eter, vertical step size and the wall angle is 1.2 mm thick Al
3003-O while 0.85, 1.5 and 2 mm thick Al 3103-O are used in
addition to 1.2 mm Al 3003-O to determine the effect of the dif-
ferent sheet thickness on incremental forming. Both materials
were annealed. Since the properties and chemical composition of
Al 3103-O are almost identical to those of Al 3003-O, both mate-
rials were included in the same test program. Ultimate strength
of Al 3003-O is between 95 and 135 MPa with a yield strength of
35 MPa, while the ultimate strength range and the yield strength
are 90–130 MPa and 35 MPa, respectively, for Al 3103-O. Total
elongation during tensile test when using 50 mm initial gauge
length is around 17% for Al 3003-O and 19% for Al 3103-O as
specified by the material supplier.
4. Basic experimental method
Reported experiments are mainly based on the production of simple
workpiece geometry, a cone. The initial diameter of 180 mm is main-
tained for each specimen, and most test parts were truncated at a 40 mm
depth.
The sheet metal is clamped into a fixture, seen exploded in Fig. 1, with a
backing plate containing a 182 mm diameter orifice that the cone will be formed
inside. The sheet is clamped around the rectangular edge and therefore the sheet
is not allowed to move into the forming region, but rather only the material
available within the 182 mm diameter can be influenced by the forming tool.
The tool travels along a path that traces the contour of the cone at a feed rate of
2000 mm/min.
Each tool path is made up of a series of contours generated transverse to the
long axis of the cone, as shown in Fig. 2. The tool first plunges down into the
sheet metal over a distance equal to the desired vertical step size, ν, as indicated
by arrow 1. Then it moves along the contour in the direction of arrow 2. After
travelling the entire path of the contour, the tool must move deeper to follow the
next contour. This is done in a step like motion, begun in the direction of arrow
3, and then continued downward. The proportions of this step are governed by
both the desired depth increment (vertical step size, ν) from one contour to the
next and by the steepness of the wall angle, α in the diagram.
The standard process parameters applied are 0.5 mm vertical step size, 10 mm
tool diameter and 50◦ wall angle and the standard material used is 1.2 mm thick
Al 3003-O. Unless the parameter is being varied, these will be the values used.
That is, unless, e.g., vertical step size is the variable in question, it will be held
constant at 0.5 mm.
For the part geometry and tool paths, forces were measured in three directions
corresponding to a Cartesian coordinate system. These three force components,
Fx , Fy and Fz , are then combined into a total force vector. Fz is the maximum
Fig. 2. Schematic of cone with tool path.
 J. Duflou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72 67

forming force applied in the vertical direction as shown by arrow 1. Fx and Fy

are the in-plane forces exerted on the sheet metal corresponding to arrows 2 and
3, respectively. All results are based on the resulting total vector sum of these
three forces.

5. Pre-processing of the force signal

Forces Fx , Fy and Fz exerted on the sheet metal are measured

by the six-component dynamometer consisting of piezoelectric
sensors that produce electrical charge proportional to the force
sustained. This charge signals are converted into output voltages,
which are then scaled up to calculate the forces, by means of the
charge amplifier unit.
Fig. 4. A detailed view of the forces Fx , Fy and Fz during forming a cone.
Fig. 3 illustrates three force components throughout the incre-
mental forming process by producing a cone with standard
the filter window along the data set incrementally and repeat-
process parameters by using a 12.7 mm diameter tool. A typ-
ing the procedure, the averaged total force curve is obtained by
ical force curve starts at zero once forming is initiated. As the
combining the mean values.
tool pushes deeper into the metal, the force quickly increases
until a depth is reached where the forces tend to remain approx-
6. Repeatability
imately constant. This occurs for a number of reasons. Firstly,
the tool does not have a contact area that is fully evolved until
The first question to dispatch is that of repeatability. Whether
a number of contours have been made, and secondly, any effect
force measurements will vary if all variables are held constant
induced by starting near the edge of the backing plate must
from one experiment to the next was verified by producing
be overcome. For instance, the close proximity of the support-
the cone with standard process parameters by using a tool of
ing backing plate imposes an initial forming mechanism that
12.7 mm diameter, six times. The results of these six identical
could be described as wiper bending and that is gradually trans-
tests are shown in Fig. 6.
formed in the steady-state incremental forming regime by the
The averaged force curve for these six parts is shown in Fig. 7.
time nominal slope angle has been reached.
The error bars show the upper and lower extents of one standard
Fig. 4 shows a detailed view of the measured force compo-
deviation from the mean for that region of the force curves.
nents for two contours depicted in Fig. 2. After completion of
At worst this shows an error band of approximately 30 N (two
one contour, the Fz component first drops to zero when the tool
standard deviations).
moves to the next contour radius, then reaches its peak value at
the step down and finally stabilizes when the tool moves along
7. Experimental results
the contour. Fx and Fy forces change between their minimum
and maximum values in a sinusoidal way according to the tool
A series of tests were carried out to ascertain the influence
position relative to the dynamometer axis within one contour.
of the vertical step size, tool diameter, wall angle and the sheet
The vector sum of the Fx , Fy and Fz forces and its mean value
thickness on the peak forming force (Fp ) and the average force
after filtering out the spikes at the step down are shown in Fig. 5.
(Fs ) once it has stabilized. Fp , is the absolute maximum force
In order to filter out the spikes, the total force curve is screened
reached during the forming process for a given part, and Fs
by dividing it into chunks of data with a limited number of data
signifies ‘settled’ force, because it is the average of the force
points. After determining the mean and the standard deviation of
over the bulk of the time taken to form a part. However, it does
the data points in the chunk window, spikes exceeding the stan-
not include the increase from zero to a nominal force level. Nor
dard deviation interval are removed from the signal. By sliding
does it include the force peak, which becomes quite explicit for

Fig. 3. Three force components (Fx , Fy and Fz ). Fig. 5. Magnitude of the total force and its mean.
68 J. Duflou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72
Fig. 6. Total force curves for six identical parts.
Fig. 7. Mean total force for six identical parts with ±1 standard deviation error
bars.
steep wall angles (e.g., the conical part with 60◦ wall angle in
Fig. 12).
7.1. Influence of step size
Fig. 8 shows the experimental results for five tests with ver-
tical steps varying from 0.25 to 1.0 mm. Fig. 9 shows the peak
magnitude (Fp ) and the average force after the peak (Fs ) of these
Fig. 8. Force curves for parts with varying vertical step size.
Fig. 9. Variation of force with increasing vertical step size.
Fig. 10. Force curves for parts formed with tools from 10 to 25 mm diameter.
forces for different vertical step values. As the vertical step size
increases it is apparent that this magnitude also rises. That is,
the magnitude of force is directly proportional to the depth of
the vertical step between contours and fits well with the linear
trends shown in the figure.
7.2. Influence of tool diameter
Similar to the step size an increase in tool diameter also causes
an increase in the force amplitude required for forming. This is
seen in Fig. 10, which depicts the force curves for the 10, 12.7,
15, 20 and 25 mm tools. Fig. 11 shows the increases in both the
peak forces (Fp ) and the mean force after the peak (Fs ).
Fig. 11. Variation of forces with increasing tool diameter.
 J. Duflou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72 69

Fig. 14. Force curves for parts formed using 0.85, 1.5 and 2 mm thick Al 3103-O
Fig. 12. Force curves for parts with 20–60◦ wall angle. and 1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O with 50◦ , 60◦ and 70◦ wall angles.

7.3. Influence of wall angle

As the part wall becomes steeper, the magnitude of the force

needed to form it gradually increases. Test specimen with wall
angles of 20–60◦ were manufactured and the resulting force
magnitudes are shown in Fig. 12. In particular a part with a 60◦
wall angle has a significant peak once the force has adequately
evolved. The phenomenon is clearly shown in Fig. 13 by the
remarkable difference between Fp and Fs at higher wall angle.
It is believed that this forms an indication that the maximum
wall angle that can be achieved by a conventional single point
incremental forming tool path is being approached.

7.4. Influence of sheet thickness

Fig. 14 shows the resultant forces for parts with 50◦ , 60◦ and
◦
70 wall angles formed by using 0.85, 1.5 and 2 mm thick Al
3103-O and 1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O.
The resultant of the forces increases considerably with
increasing sheet thickness as can be seen in Figs. 14 and 15
at each wall angle. The peak force rises up to 1460 N for a 2 mm
thick sheet formed at 70◦ wall angle, while it is limited to 380 N
for a 0.85 mm sheet at the same wall angle. It can be concluded
from these results that the sheet thickness is a dominant factor
determining the force magnitude required for single point incre-
mental forming. Fig. 15 includes only the quadratic fit on the
data points with very high correlation coefficients, since a sys-
Fig. 15. Variation of forces with increasing sheet thickness.
tematic deviation from the linear fit in the form of a quadratic
model was observed.
7.5. Influence of lubrication
Lubrication is essential in single point incremental forming
in order to reduce the friction at the tool-sheet interface and thus
to improve the surface quality.
Fig. 16 shows the resultant of the forces obtained by using
four types of lubricants: the coolant fluid of the milling machine

Fig. 16. Variation of forces with different types of lubricants for 60◦ wall angle
Fig. 13. Variation of forces with increasing wall angle. on 0.85 mm thick Al 3103-O.
70 J. Duflou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72
Fig. 17. Schematic of pyramid with tool path.
(a water-miscible metalworking fluid: Blasocut BC 20), an anti-
wear hydraulic oil of medium viscosity (Nuto H46, with ISO
viscosity grade of 46), a high viscosity machine slideway oil
(Febis K220) and a multi-purpose grease. Besides one test was
carried out without using any type of lubricant.
A conical part with 60◦ wall angle was formed by using
0.85 mm thick Al 3103-O in all the tests. As can be seen in
Fig. 16 no significant difference in forces was observed for dif-
ferent types of lubricants. The magnitude of Fp varies between
350 and 365 N while the Fs is around 320 N in all the experi-
ments. On the other hand, the test conducted without using any
lubricant resulted in a premature failure of the sheet with a severe
wear on both the tool and the sheet surface. The peak force of
375 N is followed by a sudden drop in the forces due to failure.
This implies that the presence of lubricant is quite important
in single point incremental forming to avoid wear on both the
working material and the forming tool regardless of the type of
lubricant used.
Adhesive wear is considered to be the dominant wear mech-
anism in this case because of the high wear on the tool, which
was made of a hardened tool steel with a hardness of 56 RC. The
tool was relatively hard in comparison with the soft 0.85 mm
thick Al sheet decreasing the potential for abrasive wear. Adhe-
sive tool wear occurs when soft working materials like Al are
used in combination with high friction and heavy loading. More-
over, the sheet metal is subjected to heating caused by friction
and deformation in the single point incremental forming pro-
cess.
7.6. Influence of workpiece geometry
A set of additional tests was performed with a pyramidal
geometry in order to observe the effect of the part geometry on
the resultant forces. The pyramids are truncated at 45–50 mm
depth starting from the base side length of 180 mm. The mate-
rial used is 1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O. The backing plate with a
182 mm square orifice is used in the forming fixture described
in Fig. 1.
Applying the tool path shown in Fig. 17, pyramids with 30◦ ,
40 , 50◦ and 60◦ wall angles were formed with a 0.5 mm vertical
◦ the maximum achievable with a conventional top down single
step size and 10 mm tool diameter at a feed rate of 2000 mm/min.
Fig. 18 shows a detailed view of the forces for two contours
of the pyramid tool path. Unlike the forces in Fig. 4, Fx and Fy
Fig. 18. A detailed view of the forces during forming a pyramid.
Fig. 19. Force curves for cones and pyramids with 30◦ , 40◦ , 50◦ and 60◦ wall
angle.
forces are approximately constant with changing sign depend-
ing on the tool position relative to the dynamometer. When the
tool travels along the x-axis of the dynamometer, the Fx force
reaches its maximum value, while the Fy force is at its maxi-
mum when the feed direction corresponds to the y-axis of the
dynamometer. When the Fx/Fy force is at the maximum value,
which corresponds to friction as well as limited forming action
in the feed direction, the corresponding Fy/Fx force maintains
an intermediate level.
Fig. 19 shows the mean values of the resultant forces for cones
and pyramids formed with 30◦ , 40◦ , 50◦ and 60◦ wall angles,
respectively, by using 1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O. The mean value
of the resultant forces for pyramids is obtained by the same
filtering method as applied for cones. Mean force vector sums
for pyramids are of the same order of magnitudes as for cones
for identical process parameters, although the individual Fx , Fy
and Fz force components show different patterns.
8. Discussion
The force curve of the part with 60◦ wall angle as shown in
Fig. 12 revealed that the force dropped considerably after reach-
ing a pronounced peak value. This is explained as a precursor to
failure. The drop in the force required to deform the sheet metal
can be explained by localised necking, which to the authors’
experience is usually present in parts that have wall angles near
point incremental forming tool path. Fig. 20 shows the resultant
force and the thickness profile measurement of the part with an
initial thickness of 1.2 mm and 70◦ wall angle. Both the thick-
 J. Duflou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 189 (2007) 65–72
Fig. 20. The resultant force and the thickness profile of 70◦ cone.
ness and the measured force decrease while the part is formed
between 5 and 15 mm depths (Fig. 20).
In order to explore this phenomenon more elaborately, a set
of parts was formed around the maximum draw angle [6] for
1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O. Fig. 21 shows the resultant forces for
60◦ , 70◦ , 71◦ , 72◦ and 73◦ cones. Failure was observed at 73◦
while the cones with 60◦ , 70◦ and 71◦ wall angles could be
formed without failing. One part formed at 72◦ failed while
a second one could be formed without fracture of the sheet.
Localised material defects and/or slight variation of the sheet
thickness may explain this difference.
As can be seen from Fig. 21, the parts with 73◦ and 72◦ wall
angles have the largest peak force followed by a rapid drop in
forces and the lowest settled force. The difference between the
two parts formed at 72◦ is the slightly higher minimum force
level and the settled force for the part without failure. The parts
with wall angles 71◦ and 70◦ resulted in lower peak force and
higher minimum force levels. The 60◦ part shows the lowest
peak force and the settled force rises to the highest level.
It can be concluded that a part that is about to fail shows this
pronounced peak and subsequent drop in force magnitude but
will develop tears before reaching a minimum force level and
slowly increasing again. Thickness profile measurements and
FEA simulation [7] of the 70◦ part revealed that the minimum
thickness of 0.33 mm occurred at a depth of 14.1 mm when the
tool is at the depth of 17 mm which corresponds to the minimum
force level for this wall angle as shown in Fig. 21.
[1] L. Fratini, G. Ambrogio, R. Di Lorenzo, L. Filice, F. Micari, Influence
[2] D. Leach, A.J. Green, A.N. Bramley, A new incremental sheet form-
[3] J. Jeswiet, Rapid proto-typing with incremental single point forming,
Fig. 21. Force curves for parts with 60◦ , 70◦ , 71◦ , 72◦ and 73◦ wall angle.
71
Part failure prediction can be supported using this rapid drop
in force and thus the slope of the force curve between the peak
and the minimum force can be used as a prediction factor for
failure announcement. The higher this slope, the closer the strain
situation of the part approximates final fracture. The calculated
slopes for 1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O are around −28 N/mm for 73◦
and 72◦ cones, −25 N/mm for 71◦ and 70◦ cones and −14 N/mm
for 60◦ cone.
9. Conclusions
Forces measured for identical parts in incremental forming
can be expected to be similar and repeatable. If the verti-
cal step size, tool diameter, wall angle or sheet thickness are
increased, the forces will increase accordingly. It is however
found that of these parameters, within the explored limits, ver-
tical step size has the least significant impact and can therefore
be increased without great penalty, in favour of lower part pro-
duction times.
In function of the freely selectable process parameters,
namely tool diameter and vertical step size, a linear fit pro-
vides accurate approximations for the forces to be expected.
For the part specification related sheet thickness and wall angle,
quadratic fits provide clearly more accurate analytical approxi-
mations of the force trends.
The applicability of the identified relationships is limited to
toolpaths with first order continuity in different types of part
geometries. Discrete orientation changes in toolpaths should be
taken into account, since they lead to local peaks and drops in
the force components.
As an onset towards possible adaptive control strategies, it
is important to note that a pronounced drop can be observed in
the measured forces after reaching a peak value for parts formed
around the maximum wall angle. The drop in the force required
to form the sheet metal can be explained by localised necking
and thus the slope of the force curve can be used as failure
prediction indicator. The limiting value of the slope is around
−25 N/mm for 1.2 mm thick Al 3003-O. Force signals showing
a steeper slope allow to predict failure.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge financial support
from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and
Technology in Flanders (IWT) and Interuniversity Attraction
Poles (IAP) Research Network.
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