Additive Manufacturing of Plastic Tools for Sheet Metal Forming

Abstract

Due to higher manufacturing costs and a lot of time required for the manufacturing of punch and dies for sheet metal forming, manufacturing industry tries to shift to manufacture plastic tools for sheet metal forming additively manufacturing by using 3D printing techniques. Therefore, this research work deals with the additive manufacturing of U & V Shape punch and dies. For the said purpose, 3D design model of U & V shape punch and dies were made using CATIA (a CAD software) followed by static structure analysis performed in ANSYS. Later, STL file of CAD was prepared and after setting the parameters on G-codes, tools were prepared using 3D printer. The research work also focusses on finding the suitability of plastic tools for sheet forming and compared the findings with traditional bending dies.  It was found that using this technique fixed time required for the manufacturing of punch and dies along with the money being spent on the shaping process of tooling were reduced. Furthermore, it is recommended to improve the overall efficiency of plastic tools by using reinforcement techniques.