The Research Of High Pressure Water Jet Incremental Sheet Metal Forming Process

High pressure water jet incremental sheet metal forming(WJISMF) is a new type ofsheet metal forming technology.This technology is from the thought of "layeredmanufacturing" of rapid prototyping. The basic idea is cutting the target computer partsinto a series of two-dimensional cross-sectional layer of parallel along its height direction.With the computer controlling, water jets moves along the contour motion.The process ofwater jet impacts on sheet metal is a continuous layer by layer local plastic processing.Complex shell parts is made. This technology is a green forming process because of lowfriction and no need of lubrication. It satisfies the requirements of prototypemanufacturing, which is fast, efficient and low cost. This technology has broad applicationprospects, and its forming process is worth studying.When forming the side wall of the large angle or straight wall parts, if water jetdoesn’t change incident angle,the angle between the jet and the sheet metal surface, theforce which is perpendicular to the sheet metal surface, plastic deformation and parts’forming accuracy and efficiency will become smaller with parts forming depthincreasing.When using water jet forming metal bellows,nozzle should rotate around thecentral axis of the tube.A five-axis water jet forming equipment is designed in order tosolve the above problem.This paper contains four main parts as follows:(1)A five-axis WJISMF machine is designed according to the principle of water jetincremental forming technology. The nozzle has two rotational degrees of freedom(DOF)and the workbench has three translational DOF. Linear motion parts, nozzle tilt rotatingparts and fixtures and are designed.(2)The influence factors in the process of water jet incremental sheet metal formingare listed. The experiment is made to study the relationship between the water jet pressure,nozzle feed rate,the target from sheet metal with shaping the depth of the plate.(3)Truncated cone parts are made to study the relationship between water jetincremental forming process parameters with parts of the forming performance. A lot of defects in the process of water jet incremental truncated cone parts forming are listed. Thecauses of defects are analyzed and some solutions have been proposed.(4) The straight wall cylindrical parts and metal bellows are made by using waterjet.It provides guidance for this kind of parts processing path planning.