Closed-loop control of product geometry by using an artificial neural network in incremental sheet forming with active medium

Abstract

A strategy to adjust the product geometry autonomously through an online control of the manufacturing process in incremental sheet forming with active medium is presented. An axial force sensor and a laser distance sensor are integrated into the process setup to measure the forming force and the product height, respectively. Experiments are conducted to estimate the bulging behavior for different pre-determined tool paths. An artificial neural network is consequently trained based on the experimental data to continuously predict the pressure levels required to control the final product height. The predicted pressure is part of a closed-loop control to improve the geometrical accuracy of formed parts. Finally, experiments were conducted to verify the results, where truncated cones with different dimensions were formed with and without the closed-loop control. The results indicate that this strategy enhances the geometrical accuracy of the parts and can potentially be expanded to be implemented for different types of material and geometries.