Bending-Additive-Machining

Hybrid Manufacturing of
Sheet Metal Structures
Raghavendra Kalyan Rapthadu
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Ye Li
Contents
Introduction
Objective
Methodology
Accessibility Study
Partition of Deposition Feature
Spring Back Control
Overview of Manufacturing Steps
Fabrication of Design 1
Fabrication of Design 2
References
Conclusion
Introduction
Bending is the fundamental process of forming a sheet metal into a certain
angle and inner radius.
Additional features on bend parts can serve special purposes.
The infusion of emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing and
hybrid manufacturing into traditional bending can help to make additional
features.

45o

135o
45o
Objective
Develop a hybrid manufacturing methodology for making a sheet metal
bend part with:
1. additional features
2. increased accessibility
3. spring back control

Table: Comparison of Different Manufacturing Process

Bending-Additive-
Property Additive Additive-Machining
Machining
Accessibility Medium Medium High
Material Flow Low Low High
Cost High Medium Low
Methodology
Accessibility study on features

Feature partition if necessary

Determine intermediate bend angle

Calculate minimum enclosing workpiece

Bend to intermediate angle

EDM to reduce springback

Deposition and machining

Bend to final angle

Accessibility Study
Accessibility refers to the reachability of cutters towards workpiece surface
in CNC machining.

Accessibility increases with a number of simultaneously controllable axes up

to 5-axis.
Particle flow is reachability of metal particle flow towards deposition area in
additive manufacturing.
Bending in Steps
Sheet metal can be bend into an intermediate angle and then bend again to
its final angle
The intermediate step helps to overcome the accessibility constraints
required by CNC machining process at a particular angular range.
Partition of Deposition Feature
If the feature to be deposited is inclined to its base then there is a need to
partition the deposition into two features.
Partition will serve the following :
1. separation of the original deposition feature from the base structure
2. provides a flat surface for perpendicular deposition
Spring Back Control
Any sheet metal undergoing forming will tend to get back to its original
shape upon release of loads resulting in an effect called spring back.
To eliminate spring back, a thicker workpiece is bend and machined to get
the intended design with an accurate interior angle.

Sheet metal springback in bending Design model enclosed in thicker sheet metal

Traditionally Spring back can be approximately determined by using Gardin

ers equation
3
=1+4 3 Cont.

Spring Back Control (cont.)
Above model is resolved using Gardner Equation resulting in these equations:
Ri Ri
= sin1 , = sin1 , T1 = L1 2 + R i 2 and
L1 2 +Ri 2 L2 2 +Ri 2

T2 = L2 2 + R i 2 , we have T1 sin 1 + T2 sin 2 = 0

With defined as
T2 sin + 0 if T1 + T2 cos + 0
= tan1 + ,
T1 +T2 cos + if T1 + T2 cos + < 0

angle 1 can be calculated as 1 = , and 2, t1, t2 and the minimum thickness

are then solved in turn.
Overview of Manufacturing Steps
The sequence of operation are:

Bending EDM TIG Deposition Machining

The following intermediate bend angles were achieved after spring back
control using 0.125 inch workpiece:
Required Angle Hybrid Machined Part Design Part

135 Degree 134.9 Degree 137.7 Degree

150 Degree 149.8 Degree 152.8 Degree

Process Planning for Design 1 90o

45o
45o
90o
45o
135o
45o
Coding for Design 1
Implementation of Design 1
Process Planning for Design 2
Coding for Design 2
Implementation of Design 2
Conclusion
A thin-walled workpiece with additional deposition and machining features are
bent first to obtain its basic structure with deposition and machining operations
conducted subsequently.
When accessibility is not available to deposition and machining features, the
workpiece is bent to an intermediate bending step so that both metal deposition a
nd removal can be conducted in the process-required orientation.
Incremental forming to expand the deformation to 3D geometries and explore
the capability of 5-axis machines to hybrid manufacture more complicated shapes
will be the future work.
References
[1] Tekiner Z., 2004, An experimental study on the examination of springback of sheet metals with several
thicknesses and properties in bending dies. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 145(1), pp.109-1
17.
[2] Chan W.M., Chew H.I., Lee H.P., Cheok B.T., 2006,"Finite element analysis of Spring-back of V-bendin
g sheet metal forming processes. J. Mater. Process. Technol. vol.172, pp 3541.
[3] Li Y. and Sekar A., A Bending-Machining Hybrid Process for Angular Dimensional Accuracy Enhancem
ent, Proceedings of the 2016 Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, MSEC2016, June 27
-July 1, 2016, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA
[4] Ren L., Sparks T., Ruan J., and Liou F., 2010, Integrated Process Planning for a Multiaxis Hybrid Manu
facturing System, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, APRIL 2010, Vol. 132 / 021006-1
[5] Karunakaran K. P., Suryakumar S., Pushpa V., and Akula S., 2009, Retrofitment of a CNC machine for
hybrid layered manufacturing, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 45:690703
[6] Suryakumar, S., et al., 2011, Weld bead modeling and process optimization in hybrid layered manufact
uring, Computer-Aided Design, 43 (4), 331344.
[7] Gardiner F. J., 1957, The Springback of Metals. Trans. ASME, 79, 1, pp. 1-9.
[8] Black J.T. and Kohser R.A. 2003, Materials and Processes in Manufacturing, Wiley 2012.
Thank You!

Any Questions?