Design of the novel hot incremental sheet forming experimental setup, characterization of formability behavior of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK)

In this work, a novel incremental sheet forming assisted by heat transfer through radiation was developed to improve the formability of PEEK. By means of a series of experiments forming PEEK sheets to the pyramid frustum with constant wall angle (CWA) and varying wall angle cone (VWA), the forming forces, formability, geometric accuracy, and twisting were recorded and analyzed. Different roles of the step down and temperature during the forming process were identified and discussed. The micro-mechanism of fracture was revealed through characterization of the distinct fracture patterns by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Experimental researches indicate that the developed forming process offers economical and technical benefits in artificial bone reconstruction by using PEEK.