Development of polygon forming processes for aerospace engineering

Abstract

The focus of this research lays on the further development of the Polygon Forming Technology, which is already successfully used for cold forming components in the aerospace industry. One example is the fuselage shell of the Airbus Beluga XL. According to the current state of the art it is possible to incrementally form large cylindrical or conical fuselage components by Polygon Forming. With the use of so-called infills, the Polygon Forming process can also be used to form components with pockets milled in the initial plane state. The limits of this technology exclude the creation of spherical geometries, such as those used in the front or rear fuselage sections of aircrafts. Presently, such components are produced by more complex stretch forming processes, which result in a considerable amount of scrap. In this work, a tool is developed to replicate the Polygon Forming process on experimental scale at the Institute of Forming Technology and Machines (IFUM) for materials commonly used in aerospace engineering. In addition, a downscaled pre-test tool is developed to investigate different tool geometries for incremental spherical forming inexpensive and easy according to the method of rapid prototyping.