Die-less forming of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic sheets and metal wire mesh

Abstract

The growing market for fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (FRTP) requires new flexible production processes for prototype and small series production, as conventional forming techniques involving molds are not cost efficient in these cases. Inspired by incremental sheet metal forming (ISF), an alternative manufacturing processes for the forming of FRTP with just two robot guided standard tools is outlined. To maintain a locally formed shape in the heated, flexible fabric, auxiliary wire mesh metal is used as it has similar deformation mechanisms, especially shearability, while being sufficiently self-supporting. Feasibility of the approach is discussed and investigated in basic experiments.