Geometrical deviation of end-of-life parts as a consequence of reshaping by single point incremental forming

Reducing anthropogenic environmental impact is an urgent issue to deal with. Technological innovation is needed in all the economic sectors in order to replace current practices with environmentally friendly alternatives. One of the main contributors to yearly CO₂ emissions is material production, accounting for about 25% of the global CO₂ emissions [1]. Production processes account for about 8% of total global energy demands, which is expected to rise in the upcoming years due to decreasing ore grade [2]. Recent studies have found that the reduction of the environmental impact of material production could be achieved by the implementation of a circular economy paradigm. In other words, intense usage, product repair and upgradation, remanufacturing, component re-use, and open/closed loop recycling are some of the strategies that if implemented, keeping the existing material in the circle, would therefore contribute towards reducing the environmental impact of raw material production [3]. The main principle focuses on turning an EoL product/component directly either into a reusable material or, better yet, into new products/components. As far as metals are concerned, recycling is still the most applied strategy as it provides environmental, technological, and economic benefits. Recycling processes can be still improved, though; solid state recycling processes have been developed for light alloy recycling [4] and have proved (for the case of aluminum alloys) to lower the environmental impact of recycling [5‐7]. Nevertheless, it is, by now, urgent turning to more virtuous circular economy strategies, such us product/component reuse. Besides material itself, reuse strategies would also allow function recovery from EoL components. Function recovery would result in avoiding also the environmental impact of manufacturing processes already embodied in the EoL component/product.

In the metal reuse framework proposed by Cooper and Allwood [8], four main strategies are identified; two of them rely on superficial reconditioning and the product/component is reused either for the same type of function (in the case of relocate) or for a less demanding use (in case of cascade). The other two strategies envisage “the component(s) undergo extensive reconditioning” and these are (1) remanufacturing, where inspection, disassembly, re-drilling, and metallic spraying/thermal techniques are the process to be applied (typical remanufacturing applications for metals concern automotive engines and dies [9]) and (2) reform/reshape, where manufacturing approaches (additive, subtractive, mass conserving) are applied to obtain a new, more useful, geometry reprocessing the returned EoL component changing its shape. While remanufacturing has been widely analyzed by manufacturing scientists over the last years [3, 10], reshaping has been overlooked by the scientific community so far. In general, most of the researches are concerned with additive manufacturing application, often coupled with machining processes, either to repair or to change the EoL geometry [11, 12]. Forming processes applied specifically as reuse strategy are covered in very few scientific papers published so far. Tilwankar et al. [13] proposed to reroll steel recovered from vessels into semi-finished products (plates, bars, and rods used). Brosius et al. [14] in a review paper describe how a demounted automotive engine hood can be reshaped into a rectangular sheet metal component by sheet hydroforming process. Takano et al. [15] applied single point incremental forming (SPIF) on a flattened sheet. In fact, the reshaping they propose includes the flattening of a previously bent sheet and a subsequent incremental forming step. Abu-Farha and Khraisheh [16] proposed the application of super plastic forming for applying reshaping strategies on magnesium-based sheet components. The aforementioned researches provide the innovative ideas of using forming process as circular economy enablers. However, these studies are preliminary and the potential of forming process in this new domain is not explored yet. It is worth mentioning that there is a lack of process mechanics analyses; for the proposed processes neither process windows nor process parameter influence has been analyzed so far. The authors of the present paper have recently proved a novel approach to reshape sheet metal based EoL components [17]. Specifically, SPIF was used to change the shape of deep-drawn (DD) square box part, the technical feasibility in terms of formability, stains, and thickness distribution was proved for the aluminum-based component reshaping. The authors have also proved the energy efficiency of such an approach [18]. They have developed a comparative analysis with respect conventional (re-melting based) path proving the environmental impact reduction provided by reshaping. It is worth remarking that returned components are normally characterized by high heterogeneity as there are localized thinning areas (caused by the original forming processes) while large part of the component underwent limited deformation. The thinned zones might be characterized by a limited residual formability while, in the less deformed zones, it is still possible to take advantage of almost the entire original formability. The selection of SPIF process was intended to overcome the aforementioned issues efficiently. In fact, SPIF is a flexible process, characterized by a local forming action. Its local action along with its enhanced formability has been widely proved [19]. Such advantages are the result of the unique process mechanics of SPIF [20, 21].

In this paper a new aspect of the reshaping process by SPIF is evaluated, the main aim is to analyze and quantify the geometrical deviation caused by SPIF process (in the zones not worked on by with SPIF process). In fact, although SPIF process is characterized by low forming loads [22], some distortions actions on the EoL part are still applied and geometrical deviation may occur. This paper, therefore, aims on analyzing such aspects and to provide guidelines to bring this approach closer to an industrial applicability.

The main aim of this research was to reshape previously deformed metal components in order to impart a different use so as to avoid material wastage. The proposed approach is relying on the possibility of safely disassembling a large sheet metal component from EoL products, such as automobile body, washing machines, etc. and directly giving them an additional form through SPIF process. Since the research was driven by the intent of reshaping, a virgin blank sheet was given an initial deformation in the form of a square cup through deep drawing process, a commonly utilized stamping process. Doing so, an imitation of an EoL product was created, ready to be reshaped for another use of the same component. In order to cover a larger portion of production scenarios, two different SPIF approaches were implemented. That is, SPIF process was carried out on the base of the square cup imparting an additional truncated pyramid shape from both inwards as well as outwards directions as illustrated in Fig. 1. As it can be seen, the square cup carried out by deep drawing process is here considered the EoL component to be reshaped. The reshaped component was then obtained by applying SPIF process. This choice was driven by the will to simulate the entire process chain.

The experiments were performed on an AA5754 aluminum alloy, 0.5 mm thick. The deep drawing process was characterized by a filet radius of 3 mm and a base of 50 mm, as depicted in Fig. 2. In order to analyze the effect of geometrical parameters on the accuracy of the reshaped component, some of them had been varied, in particular, the height of the deep-drawn part (H), the SPIF angle (α), and the SPIF base (B). Geometrical parameters selected for the deep drawing as well as SPIF process for developing the analysis are illustrated in Fig. 2, along with the annotations. Two levels for each parameter have been selected, and a full factorial design was performed for each SPIF direction; thus, a total of 16 configurations were analyzed, as reported in Table 1. Considering the selected levels for each parameter, the higher numerical value is being selected very close to the part property limits. In fact, in case of the angle selected, which according to the existing literature, was found to be 65° [17] and the maximum value selected in this case study was 60°, whereas the lower value was selected as 45°, significant for the scope of the paper.

Similarly, for the SPIF base the values were selected as close as possible to the square cup corners as well as decently far from the corners. As far as deep drawing height (H) is concerned, the higher value was selected as a limit, in fact a value much higher than that selected caused fracture because of the process limit (too high local deep drawing ratio). Each process configuration was performed thrice for result consistency, since the difference in the obtained results was smaller than two orders of magnitude with respect to the average value, only the average value has been reported in Table 1.

Although the SPIF process causes severe thinning in the cone walls [17], sound samples were obtained for all the experiments. In Fig. 3, the reshaped samples of four different parameter combinations are reported (Fig. 4).

In this research the clamping system for performing SPIF was set up on a 4 axes CNC milling machine, a tool with a high-speed steel based 4 mm diameter was used. A helical tool path with a 0.2 mm descent was applied for each revolution of the tool.

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the geometrical deviation caused by SPIF process, in this respect the shape of the reshaped component had to be compared with that of the EoL part. In order to do so, the outer surface of the component was acquired both after deep drawing and after SPIF, utilizing a photo acquisition system, “Steinbichler COMET” Laser Scanner. The acquired geometries were then analyzed through GeoMagic Control X software, which through the function of auto alignment between EoL and reshaped part geometries yielded the maximum deviation and the root mean squared error between the non-worked zones, i.e., the lateral walls of the square cup. The observations and results are detailed in “Section 4.”

This paper contributes to lay the ground concerning reshaping process of end-of-life products. In particular, the performance of SPIF process was analyzed as process to enable reshaping of sheet EoL components. Specifically, the geometrical deviation as a consequence of SPIF operations was studied on the non-worked zones of the EoL component. For this aim, two different SPIF directions (named inwards and outwards) were analyzed; the effect of some geometrical parameters was taken into account. The paper, by a wide experimental campaign, revealed two different geometrical deviations as the direction of SPIF changes. In the outward case, limited deviation occurred and basically a draw in of the lateral walls of the EoL part occurred. For this case study, the statistical analyses did not reveal any significant correlation between the variation of geometrical parameters and the geometrical distortion indicators (Maximum deviation and RMS). With regard the inward case study, a different phenomenon was observed. In fact, SPIF reshaping causes a shortening of the lateral walls as well as an outward displacement, actually a limited buckling phenomenon was observed. For the inward approach, higher geometric deviation occurred, and Pareto chart analyses and main effect plot revealed a correlation between geometrical deviation and SPIF base as well as deep drawing height. Actually, the SPIF base showed a higher influence as if affects both the maximum deviation and the RMS. The deep drawing height slightly affects only the RMS performance. Overall, performances of the SPIF process as reshaper are promising, although this research field deserves to be further explored. The capability of SPIF in changing the shape of EoL components is to be analyzed and structured in design rules. It is worth mentioning that the extent of deformation applicable on an EoL component depends both on the formability performance of the selected processes for reshaping (in the present case SPIF) as well as on the conditions (thickness distributions) of the recovered component. Besides thickness distribution, the overall material condition/properties of the EoL material should be also assessed prior to reshaping. Change in mechanical properties or creep occurrence could compromise the reshaping approach by SPIF. In the present paper, it is assumed that no specific natural precipitation hardening phenomena have occurred during the part life. What is more, it is assumed that no creep phenomena were induced in the material. Such assumption is quite plausible for the considered aluminum alloy as well as for the potential applications of the obtained reshaped component. Nevertheless, in an industrial environment the inspection step becomes crucial for a successful reshaping strategy implementation. Thinning distribution of EoL and material properties/conditions are crucial pieces of information to properly design the reshaping. This pieces of information will allow correct identification of the zones of EoL component to be reshaped. In order to explore the capability of SPIF to actually change the shape, this approach needs an analysis with varying the kind and extent of the first deformation step. Along with deep drawing mechanics, stretching, bending, and more complex strain histories have to be used as processes to get the EoL component. For each case, the performance of SPIF has to be analyzed both in terms of formability and accuracy. Moreover, to fully explore the potential of reshaping, other flexible sheet metal forming processes should be analyzed. Other candidates could be hydroforming (possibly the assisted temperature versions) and hot gas forming. These options deserve to be explored to identify the most suitable process with varying EoL properties. Finally, some innovative fixture to be used during SPIF experiments could be thought of, to prevent distortion in extreme case studies.