Incremental Forming of Titanium Tubes: An Experimental Study

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kar Higher Education Institute, Qazvin, Iran

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical and Vocational University (TVU), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Incremental forming has emerged as a flexible and cost-effective alternative to conventional tube and sheet forming methods, particularly suitable for low-volume production and prototyping. In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out on the die-less incremental forming of thin-walled titanium tubes to produce a square cross-section at the tube end under room-temperature conditions.
A flexible forming system was developed, consisting of a rotating internal tool mounted on a CNC milling machine, programmed to follow a predefined square path. A full factorial design of experiments (DOE) was employed to analyze the influence of key process parameters—linear feed rate, axial step, and forming depth—on wall thickness and geometric accuracy.
The results showed that increasing the tool speed improved formability due to localized frictional heating and reduced springback, whereas excessive step size led to greater thinning and distortion. Statistical analysis using ANOVA confirmed the validity of the developed models, with high correlation coefficients (R² > 0.93) between predicted and experimental values. Overall, the proposed die-less incremental forming process demonstrates excellent potential for manufacturing non-axisymmetric tubular components, offering high flexibility, low tooling cost, and good dimensional accuracy.

Keywords

References

[1] Jeswiet, J., Micari, F., Hirt, G., Bramley, A., Duflou, J., & Allwood, J. (2005). Asymmetric single point incremental forming of sheet metal. CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology, 54(2), 88–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-8506(07)60021-3
[2] Jeswiet, J., & Hagan, E. (2001). Rapid prototyping of a cup using incremental forming. CIRP Annals, 50(1), 125–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-8506(07)62074-2
[3] Young, D., & Jeswiet, J. (2004). Wall thickness variations in single point incremental forming. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 218(11), 1453–1459. https://doi.org/10.1243/0954405042706914
[4] Ambrogio, G., Filice, L., & Manco, G. (2008). Warm incremental forming of magnesium alloy AZ31. CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology, 57(1), 257–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2008.03.057
[5] Duflou, J., Habraken, A., Verbert, J., Gu, J., Sol, H., & Tunckol, Y. (2008). Experimental study on warm single point incremental forming of aluminum sheets. CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology, 57(1), 255–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2008.03.056
[6] Göttmann, A., Diettrich, J., Bambach, M., & Hirt, G. (2011). Investigations on the influence of local heating on the formability in incremental sheet forming. Production Engineering, 5(2), 177–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-010-0281-2
[7] Malhotra, R., Bhattacharya, A., Kumar, A., Reddy, N. V., & Cao, J. (2012). Study of damage in incremental forming using SPIF and DSIF. CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology, 61(1), 251–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2012.03.115
[8] Behera, A. K., de Souza, A. M., Ingarao, G., & Oleksik, V. (2017). Single point incremental forming: An assessment of the progress and technology trends from 2005 to 2015. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 27, 37–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2017.03.014
[9] Bagudanch, I., Centeno, G., Morales-Palma, D., Rodríguez, C., Vallellano, C., & García-Romeu, M. L. (2015). Formability limits and failure in single point incremental forming of AZ31 magnesium alloy. Materials & Design, 83, 632–642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2015.06.074
[10] Echrif, S. B. M., & Hrairi, M. (2011). Experimental study of sheet metal incremental forming of titanium. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 211(10), 1704–1710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2011.05.015
[11] Duflou, J. R., Tunckol, Y., Verbert, J., & de Baerdemaeker, H. (2008). Experimental study of AA1050 aluminum sheets in warm single point incremental forming. CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology, 57(1), 255–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2008.03.056
[12] Göttmann, A., Bambach, M., & Hirt, G. (2010). Incremental forming of tubes—fundamentals and process strategies. Key Engineering Materials, 433, 139–146. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.433.139
[13] Zhang, S., Yang, X., Li, S., Liu, Y., & Yuan, S. (2019). Experimental study on multi-stage forming of titanium tubes by incremental forming. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 271, 317–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2019.03.010
[14] Rahmani, F., Hashemi, S. J., & Asadi, M. (2021). Experimental study on the effect of vibration isolators on compressor vibration reduction. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 185, 105855. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2020.105855
[15] Gao, L., Hussain, G., Liu, Z., Cui, Z., & Hayat, N. (2013). Formability analysis in single point incremental forming of titanium sheet. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 213(6), 1010–1023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2012.12.006
[16] Kim, Y., Park, J., & Hwang, J. (2016). Investigation of thermal effects in warm incremental forming of titanium sheets. Materials Science and Engineering A, 651, 587–595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2015.11.047
[17] Emmens, W. C., & van den Boogaard, A. H. (2009). Incremental forming: Review of the history and state of the art. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 209(14), 6032–6040. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2009.06.011
[18] Seyedkashi, S. M., Rahmani, F., & Hashemi, S. J. (2012). Experimental investigation of incremental tube forming without dies. International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 59, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2012.03.004
[19] Rahmani, F., Hashemi, S. J., & Seyedkashi, S. M. (2020). Numerical and experimental study of incremental forming of aluminum tubes using a rotating tool system. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 283, 116712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2020.116712
[20] Rahmani, F., Hashemi, S. J., & Seyedkashi, S. M. (2021). Experimentl and numerical investigation on local deformation and thickness distribution in incremental tube forming. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 68, 1417–1428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2021.06.027
Iranian Journal of Materials Forming
Volume 13, Issue 2
April 2026
Pages 35-46

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics