Incremental Forming of Friction Stir Welded Taylored Sheets

In the last decade sheet metal forming market has undergone substantial mutations since the development of more efficient strategies in terms of flexibility and cost reduction is strictly due. Such requirements are not consistent with traditional metal stamping processes which are characterized by complex equipment, capital and tooling costs; thus the industrial application of such processes is economically convenient just for large scale productions. For this reason most of the research work developed in the last years has been focused on the development of new sheet forming processes able to achieve the above discussed goals. Contemporary, with particular reference to the automotive industries the requirement of light components and the engineering of the outer skin parts of the vehicles have determined the growing utilization of tailored blanks characterized by either different material or different sheet thickness. In the paper SPIF processes of FS welded aluminium blanks are investigated in order to analyse the product properties in terms of strength and formability. A proper experimental investigation has been carried out and interesting guidelines have been highlighted in the next paragraphs.