33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.

Application of hot air heating for single point in-

cremental forming of different lightweight con-
struction materials
Einsatz der Heißlufterwärmung zur inkrementellen Umformung ver-
schiedener Leichtbauwerkstoffe
A. Leonhardt1*, A. Al-Obaidi2, A. Kunke3, V. Kräusel4, Chemnitz
G. Kurz5, D. Letzig6, Geesthacht
Abstract
The shaping of steel and aluminium sheet with single point incremental
forming (SPIF) is well investigated in research context. Specific develop-
ments of the tooling and processing technology were realized to transfer the
technology to hard-to-form materials, e. g. lightweight construction and
composite materials. The forming of the listed materials cannot be per-
formed at room temperature. Therefore, the workpiece temperature was
increased to enable a flexible forming process. Global hot air heating was
applied during forming a magnesium sheet (AZ31) and glass-fibre reinforced
thermoplastic polymer (PA6GF47). Initial experimental analyses were
conducted to adopt both the heating and the forming process parameters.
The resulted experiments indicate that the formability of both AZ31 and
PA6GF47 was improved during single point incremental forming assisted by
hot air heating. Moreover, an optimal heating temperature was detected to
prevent unwanted cracking in the produced samples. The investigated
process can be applied to form lightweight construction and composite
materials individually with reasonable costs for small series production.
Potential applications are selected car body parts for classic or racing
automobiles and individual orthoses for medical cases.

Die inkrementelle Blechumformung (IBU) von Stahl und Aluminium wurde

bereits in vielen Forschungsarbeiten untersucht. Zur Erweiterung des
Verfahrens wurden gezielte Entwicklungen der Werkzeug- und Prozess-
technologie vorgenommen, um eine Anwendung der IBU für weitere Leicht-
bauwerkstoffe sowie Verbundwerkstoffe zu ermöglichen. Da diese Materia-
lien nicht bei Raumtemperatur umgeformt werden können, wurde die

1
M.Sc. André Leonhardt,
2
Dr.-Ing. Amar Al-Obaidi,
3
Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Kunke,
4
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Verena Kräusel,
Professorship for Forming and Joining, Institute of Machine Tools and Production Processes,
Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz
5
Dr.-Ing. Gerrit Kurz,
6
Dr. rer. nat. Dietmar Letzig,
Magnesium Innovation Centre, Institute of Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht,
Geesthacht

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

Werkstücktemperatur während des flexiblen Umformverfahrens erhöht. Eine

globale Heißlufterwärmung wurde für die IBU der Magnesiumlegierung
AZ31 und dem Glasfaser-verstärkten, thermoplastischen Kunststoff
PA6GF47 verwendet. Zu Beginn wurden die Erwärmungs- und Prozesspa-
rameter mit Hilfe experimenteller Untersuchungen angepasst und optimiert.
In den anschließenden Experimenten konnte gezeigt werden, dass die
Umformbarkeit des AZ31 sowie des PA6GF47 während der IBU mit globaler
Heißlufterwärmung verbessert werden konnte. Weiterhin wurde ein optima-
les Temperaturfenster ermittelt, in dem das Versagen des Werkstoffes
durch Reißen unterbunden wird. Diese Weiterentwicklung der IBU ermög-
licht die kostengünstige Umformung von Leichtbau- und Verbundwerkstof-
fen zu individuellen Bauteilgeometrien für Kleinserien und Prototypen.
Potenzielle Anwendungen sind Karosserieteile von Oldtimern oder Renn-
wagen sowie Orthesen in der Medizintechnik.

1 Introduction
The trend of higher product individuality accompanied by decreasing batch
sizes and increasing variety of designs also takes place in the field of sheet
metal forming. Hence, there is a great demand for flexible forming technolo-
gies like single point incremental forming (SPIF). The potential of SPIF
technology is the shaping of individual sheet metal parts in small lot sizes
using low cost tooling and fixtures. Furthermore, it can be applied on con-
ventional CNC milling machines. In SPIF the sheet metal is formed locally in
a progressive, kinematic process. In the last decades the incremental sheet
forming of steel and aluminium was investigated in several research projects
[1]. Further innovative products can be obtained by applying this technology
on additional lightweight materials like magnesium or composites requiring
an adaptation of the conventional forming processes.
Magnesium is the lightest used engineering metal, being 75% lighter than
steel and 35% lighter than aluminium [2]. Due to the high specific strength
and its almost inexhaustible availability it could be used for lightweight
structural parts in the automobile and aircraft industry. Due to its structure
the formability of magnesium sheets is low at room temperature restricting
its applications in industry. Intensive research has been carried out on the
SPIF of magnesium with different heating methods. Radiation heating was
investigated using halogen lamps [3] and a heating band was used in [4].
Furthermore, the SPIF of AZ31 was tested with heating by hot air blowers
[5] and by global [6] as well as local [7] electrical resistance heating. As a
result, the optimum formability of magnesium sheets was found in the
temperature range between 150 °C and 300 °C by activating the slip sys-
tems on the prismatic and pyramidal planes of the hexagonal close packed
(HCP) structure in magnesium sheets [5].
Another promising light weight material is glass-fiber reinforced polymer
(GFRP) which is widely applied in the production of lightweight structures
due to its high strength and corrosion resistance. Thermoforming is a typical
production process for GFRP being cost-intensive in case of production of

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

prototype parts or small lot sizes. Major challenges in the GFRP forming
process are the poor rigidity, its specific characteristic of being hard to form
into complex shapes and the necessity of heating. The heating process in
SPIF can be applied globally [3] or locally [8]. Furthermore, PVC polymer
sheets were also formed at room temperature by SPIF as demonstrated in
[9]. The overall aim of this work is to successfully form the magnesium and
GFRP sheets into cone shape by applying the hot SPIF process.

2 Investigated materials
Commercial AZ31 sheets of 2 mm thickness are utilized for the SPIF tests.
These sheets were produced by the twin roll casting process and then rolled
down to the final gauge. Further information about the material can be found
in [10]. The glass-fibre reinforced polymer PA6GF47 was tested in SPIF
experiments. The glass fibres are arranged as twill weave in the matrix of
polyamide 6 (PA6). The thickness of the glass-fibre reinforced thermoplastic
polymer is 2.5 mm. The mechanical and thermal properties of PA6GF47 are
listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Mechanical and thermal properties of PA6GF47 [11]

Property Value
Tensile modulus (DIN EN ISO 527-4/5) 18 – 23 GPa
Tensile strength (DIN EN ISO 527-4/5) 380 – 390 MPa
Tensile elongation (DIN EN ISO 527-4/5) 2.2 – 2.3 %
Glass transition temperature 60 °C
Melting temperature 220 °C

3 Experimental equipment and testing procedure

The SPIF experiments were conducted on a conventional three-axis CNC
milling machine using a special fixture which is based on a four column
frame (Figure 1a). The global hot air heating was implemented because of
the following advantages:
 simple equipment
 no change of forming tool required
 no direct contact between heating device and part
 movement of the tool is not hindered
 complex parts possible to form
 no dependence on feed rate
 temperature control possible
An insulation system consists of heat-resistant insulation material in order to
make heating process more efficient and to reduce the heat transfer to the
surrounding environment. On the one hand, an insulation chamber made of
silicate material with a thickness of 25 mm is placed under the sheet metal.
On the other hand, a lamellar material with a high compressive strength was
used for a supporting plate with 20 mm thickness and for the clamping

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

plates with 10 mm thickness to fix the material during forming. The support-
ing plate has a working area with a diameter of 110 mm to reduce the
bending effect of the specimen edge. Furthermore, a second supporting
plate of 5 mm steel sheet was placed exactly under the workpiece and
slotted (Figure 1a). Due to this setup the hot air flows through the channels
to the outside at the top of the device near the sheet material. The result is a
faster and more homogenous heating of the sheet.
(a) (b)

Figure 1: (a) SPIF set-up with hot air heating, (b) experimental equipment
The applied hot air blower (4.5 kW) provides a maximum air temperature of
650 °C and a variable air flow up to 400 l/min. A closed loop PID controler is
installed controlling the sheet temperature (Figure 1b). The temperature of
the material is measured by three thermocouples (type K) welded on the
supporting steel plate at the corner of the working area. Two thermocouples
are used to record the temperature and the third one provides the input for
the PID controller. At first, the air from the hot air blower has a temperature
of 650 °C. When the desired sheet temperature is reached, the air tempera-
ture is continuously reduced to obtain a constant sheet temperature. This
system offers an effective thermal control and avoids high thermal gradients.

Table 2: Parameters for the SPIF tests

Material (thickness) AZ31 (2.0 mm) PA6GF47 (2.5 mm)
Tool diameter 10 mm 12 mm
Tool material tungsten carbide metal
Tool path spiral
Feed rate 1500 mm/min 2000 mm/min
-1
Rotational speed 0 min
Step-down size 0.5 mm
cone
Ø = 100 mm
Part geometry
h = 50 mm h = 20 mm
α > 15° (5°-steps) α > 25° (5°-steps)

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

Initial experiments were performed to identify the optimal heating parame-

ters. The aim was to achieve a homogenous heating temperature distribu-
tion and to determine the required time to reach the demanded sheet
temperature. An IR camera was implemented to measure the sheet temper-
ature on the upper side. The lower side sheet temperature was recorded by
thermocouples. After that, forming experiments have been conducted with a
truncated cone as a test specimen for the AZ31 and the PA6GF47. The
selected parameters for the tests can be seen in Table 2, which are used to
determine the maximum wall angle. The maximum or critical wall angle of
the cone is the highest wall angle that can be formed without material
cracking and is considered as formability index in SPIF.

4 Results and discussion

4.1 SPIF of AZ31 with hot air heating

The temperature profiles for the global hot air heating of AZ31 with set
temperatures in a range of 150 to 320 °C are illustrated in Figure 2a.
A constant temperature is reached in the middle of the sheet after a specific
settle time. The temperature distribution in the magnesium sheet at a set
temperature of 300 °C is shown in Figure 2b as recorded by an IR camera.
The maximum temperature difference on the whole sheet are lower than 30
K and rises with increasing sheet temperature. So the difference at 150 °C
is approx. 9 K and at 320 °C approx. 28 K. The temperature in the forming
zone (Figure 2b) is more uniform and the maximum differences are lower
than 20 K.
(a) (b)

Figure 2: (a) Temperature profile in middle of sheet, (b) temperature

distribution on sheet for set temperature of 300 °C [10]
Due to the high sheet temperature a solid lubricant made of MoS2 is used in
the forming tests. The ductility of AZ31 is very low at room temperature. The
material failure at room temperature occurs in a depth of a some millimetres,
although a cone is formed with a very small wall angle of 20° (Figure 3a).
The critical wall angle increased with rising sheet temperature in the forming

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

experiments supported by hot air heating. This shows the relevant role of
the temperature in the forming of magnesium sheet. No cracks were detect-
ed through the sheet thickness for all forming tests. Whereas, an orange
peel effect appeared on the outer surface being not in contact with the
forming tool. For this reason, it is very difficult to determine the maximum
forming angle because the abort criterion has to be defined by the amount
or the characteristic of the orange peel effect. The highest wall angle being
formed without cracks is 50° at 300 °C showing a large amount of orange
peel and surface cracks on the outer surface (Figure 3b).
(a) (b)

Figure 3: Inner and outer surface of a cone with a wall angle of (a) 20°
formed at room temperature and (b) 50° formed at 300 °C
The inner and outer surfaces of the cones were scanned by the optical
measurement system GOM ATOS. The distance between the two surfaces
is analysed in order to obtain the thickness distribution. Furthermore the
sheet thickness after forming is compared to the sine law, which is a theo-
retical formula for the calculation of the final sheet thickness t1 as function of
the initial sheet thickness t0 and the wall angle α:
∗ sin 90° (1)
Figure 4 shows the sheet thickness distribution as an example. At first the
sheet thickness is higher than the theoretical thickness (area II), which is
due to the distance between the backing plate and the starting point of the
forming process on the sheet. For this reason the sheet can bend freely in
this sector, causing less sheet thinning.

Figure 4: Sheet thickness distribution compared with sine law for 30° wall
angle cone formed at 300 °C

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

The thickness decreases steeply in this area until a nearly constant sheet
thickness is reached which is in acceptable agreement with the sine law for
all formed wall angles (area III). Furthermore, there is a severe reduction of
sheet thickness at the top of the cone due to the tool path (area IV).

4.2 SPIF of PA6GF47 with hot air heating

A special layer setup was developed to implement the incremental sheet
forming for the PA6GF47 (Figure 5a). Beside a DC04 steel sheet
(t = 1.2 mm) on the top, Teflon (PTFE) foils (t = 0.25 mm) and an aluminium
sheet (t = 0.3 mm) were applied to support the forming process and to
protect the PA6GF47. The reason for using the deep drawing steel was to
prevent the PA6GF47 surface from wear that is caused by the movement of
the forming tool’s spherical tip. Moreover, a thin aluminium sheet at the
bottom side was applied to protect the polymer matrix PA6 matrix from
excessive heating resulting in a melting of the polymer. Thin aluminium
sheet was used instead of thick aluminium or steel sheets to reduce the
compressive forces exerted on the PA6GF47 during forming preventing
excessive thinning and material failure. On top of that, the geometric accu-
racy can be improved by using an aluminium sheet. The PTFE foils were
utilized to permit sliding of the PA6GF47 during forming. Similar to deep
drawing of sheet metals fibre reinforced polymer need to flow during the
forming process to prevent material failure. This has already been shown for
the press forming of woven carbon-fibre reinforced thermoplastic sheet [12].
Figure 5b summarizes the sliding behaviour of the PA6GF47 during the hot
SPIF of a cone.
(a) (b)

Figure 5: Layer setup and enlarged cross-sectional view of the SPIF of

PA6GF47 illustrating the sliding phenomena
The optimum heating temperature was concluded between 190 and 210 °C
by controlling the heated air without excessive melting of the PA6 matrix
structure. Moreover, the deformation of the PA6GF47 during forming allows
the glass fibres to slide through the heated polymer matrix. The transfor-
mation of the PA6 matrix from solid to the semi-fluid state results in a
softening of the PA6GF47. The initial heating experiments demonstrated

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

that the upper steel sheet temperature was 45 °C lower than the PA6GF47
temperature.
Subsequently, the cone-shaped parts were formed with wall angles ranging
from 25° to 55°. Furthermore, numerous experiments were performed to
produce a cone with a wall angle of 56°, but all of these tests failed and
resulted in severely cracked cones. Figure 6a shows the cone shape with a
55° wall angle being formed with the above mentioned method. The sliding
of PA6GF47 during forming is very important allowing the PA6GF47 to flow.
It is not necessary to compress the PA6GF47 by the fixing clamps during
the clamping the workpiece combination. The geometry of the formed parts
was measured by GOM ATOS optical scanning measuring device. In
addition, the average sliding distance was optimized for all formed cones, as
indicated in Figure 6b. It can be seen that the sliding distance rises with
increasing wall angle at first, but sharply decreases after reaching the wall
angle of 50°. The glass fibres arranged as twill weave moved freely in the
PA6 matrix during SPIF for all cones until a wall angle of 50°. For higher
wall angles wrinkling of the PA6GF47 occurred.
(a) (b)

Figure 6: (a) Formed cone with a wall angle of 55°, (b) relation between
wall angle and sliding distance
The SPIF process is well known for its high strains and excessive thinning in
sheet metal parts after forming. The analysis of the formed cones made of
PA6GF47 focusses on cracks and voids in the material. Therefore, micro-
scopic pictures were taken from different formed zones of the PA6GF47
(Figure 7a). The microscopic sample taken from zone I shows that the
cracks were concentrated in the bottom area near the bending radius
(Figure 7b). In addition, the largest cracks in the samples were found in the
50° and 55° wall angles because of the increased compressive stresses of
the woven fibres caused by higher displacements. In contrast, no cracks
were found in the wall area zone II. Whereas, many voids can be found in
zone III of the formed PA6GF47. These voids are called air voids and
originated in the GFRP sheet during heating and forming as investigated in
[13]. These voids are also presented in vacuum bagging as presented in
[14]. Moreover, the void measurement showed that the number and size of
voids increases with increasing part wall angle.

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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

(a) (b)

Figure 7: (a) Cross sectional view of the formed cone, (b) microscopic
pictures of PA6GF47 taken from the 55° wall angle cone

5 Conclusions and outlook

The global hot air heating was successfully applied to the SPIF for both the
magnesium alloy AZ31 and the glass-fibre reinforced thermoplastic polymer
PA6GF47. Due to the optimized heating device using a PID controller, a
constant and homogenous distribution of sheet temperature was achieved
with deviations in the forming zone less than 20 K. The maximum wall angle
of 50° was formed for the AZ31 at a sheet temperature of 300 °C with a
pronounced orange peel effect on the sheet surface. The sheet thickness is
nearly constant and in good agreement to the sine law regarding the wall
area of the cone. The PA6GF47 was inserted between two PTFE layers and
two metal sheets. The metallic sheets were used to protect the PA6GF47
from excessive distortion by friction and extreme heating effects. Moreover,
the PTFE layers were used to improve the sliding of the PA6GF47 during
SPIF assisted by hot air heating. It is worth to note, that the cones with wall
angles larger than 50° showed wrinkling, folding, internal cracks and voids.
Finally, the SPIF assisted by global hot air heating is a convenient method
for the prototype and small batch production. Further investigations on the
influence of different parameters (e. g. feed rate, tool diameter, step-down
size) on the SPIF for the tested materials are necessary to apply it properly
in industrial application.

6 References
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[2] M. . Avedesian and H. Baker, “ASM Specialty Handbook: Magnesium
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33. Aachener Stahlkolloquium Vortrag 1.2

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