Failure mechanisms in single-point incremental forming of metals

The last years saw the development of two different views on how failure develops in single-point incremental forming (SPIF). Today, researchers are split between those claiming that fracture is always preceded by necking and those considering that fracture occurs with suppression of necking. Each of these views is supported by convincing experimental and theoretical arguments that are available in the literature. This paper revisits failure in SPIF and presents a new level of understanding on the influence of process variables such as the tool radius that assists the authors to propose a new unified view on formability limits and development of fracture. The unified view conciliates the aforementioned different explanations on the role of necking in fracture and is consistent with the experimental observations that have been reported in the past years. The work is performed on aluminium AA1050-H111 sheets and involves independent determination of formability limits by necking and fracture using tensile and hydraulic bulge tests in conjunction with SPIF of benchmark shapes under laboratory conditions.