Incremental Bulk Metal Forming

P. Groche1 (2), D. Fritsche1, E. A. Tekkaya2 (2), J. M. Allwood3 (2), G. Hirt4, R. Neugebauer5 (1)
Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
2
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey
3
Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
4
Metal Forming Institute, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
5
Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology, Chemnitz, Germany

Abstract
Incremental bulk forming is the oldest known technique in metal working. Many developments in this field
have dramatically changed our society. Today incremental bulk forming processes are applied to quality
products in small and large series production. Numerous advances have been realized. The motivation for
using these processes is presented here. After a general definition of incremental processes and a
classification of incremental bulk forming in particular, some innovative product and process examples are
given that show the potential. Finally recent progress and challenges are illustrated in detail. This includes the
development of new machinery for incremental bulk forming, advanced methods for process planning,
occurrence of failure modes and the properties of finished products.
Keywords:
Forming, Metal, Incremental

INTRODUCTION: FROM CRAFT TO HIGH-TECH

PRODUCTION
a thin disc afterwards as illustrated in Figure 1. Traces
Traces of this incremental working can still be detected
today as reported by an investigation with
computerized tomography [5].
Another emerging application was bronze armour that
was produced with similar techniques. Even after the
processing of iron was established, in some regions
armour was made from bronze until the early Middle Ages
[6].

1.1 History of incremental bulk forming

The history of incremental forming techniques goes back
to the Neolithic Age. At this time man began to produce
simple tools and ornaments from elementary metals like
gold, silver and copper. Utilization of metals strongly
changed the human society. The first upper classes were
formed by the people who controlled winning and trading
of metallic material and products. The oldest findings of
processed copper are dated to 8000 BC and originate
from Anatolia [1]. The practical value of these objects was
not very high, because copper is rather soft and cutting
edges are worn off quickly. The first metallic objects were
mainly used for decorative or cultic purposes. When the
processing was improved later tools became possible like
the copper axe that the famous Neolithic man tzi
carried [2]. In [3] E. G. and H.H. Thomsen have
shown that it is possible to manufacture gold or silver
parts by the use of soft tools of the same material. So this
fact could be an explanation why tools are only rarely
found in archaeological sites as the material was probably
remelted.
The situation changed when bronze alloys were
discovered by melting copper together with tin ores. In
about 3300 BC early bronze tools were made that showed
an improved durability. Many hundreds of reaping hooks
and axes as well as several swords were found all over
Europe [4]. But it is assumed that these swords were
used primarily to express the owners splendour rather
than fighting as they were very brittle. A famous artefact
from the Bronze Age is the sky disc of Nebra that was
probably used for astronomical purposes [4]. This piece of
art is about 3600 years old and was initially made by
casting bronze. The solidified material was hammered to

Annals of the CIRP Vol. 56/2/2007

Figure 1: Cast and forged material, the sky disc from

Bronze Age [4].
The first findings of worked iron are also from the ending
of the Bronze Age. Very pure and formable iron can be
found in nature mainly in the form of meteorites. These
were the first resource used for ferrous material. Of
course the availability of the material from this source was
very limited.

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doi:10.1016/j.cirp.2007.10.006

Figure 2: Timeline of incremental metal working.

In about 1200 BC the Hittites developed the production of
wrought iron. The smelting of the ores could only be
realized below the melting temperature of iron at this time.
A spongy mass results (sometimes called a bloom),
consisting of a mix of wrought iron and slag. The sponge
iron was repeatedly processed by hammering and folding
to remove the slag mechanically. The resulting wrought
iron with an acceptable purity grade was then formed to
the desired shape. Finally the properties of the workpiece
were improved by carburization and annealing. In this way
a smooth transition to the Iron Age took place [7].

The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used hammers and

anvils made from tempered iron. Several kilograms of this
material represented a significant value at that time.
Therefore the control of profitable ore deposits was often
the cause of war. Besides the improvement of agricultural
tools the development of weapons gained significance [6,
7].
(a)

(b)

(a)

Figure 4: (a) Modern technology for incremental forming

with robots, (b) open die forging of large shafts, sources:
IPA Stuttgart, Siempelkamp.
(b)

The production of iron was simplified with the invention of

the blast furnace in China. Ores could now be smelted
above the melting point of iron omitting the mechanical
removal of slag and impurities. Around 300 AD a process
for the production of steel was used in India for the first
time. Iron was heated together with charcoal and glass in
a crucible. The glass floated on the melt and so it was
hermetically sealed. Later Damascus steel was invented
in Syria based on this technique. Several layers of hard
and brittle steel on the one hand and soft and ductile steel
on the other were piled up, hammered and folded. This
process was repeated many times to produce work pieces
that feature ductility and hardness at the same time [7].
In the Middle Ages the art of blacksmithing spread to the
whole known world and was further improved. Since the
13th century water-powered tilt hammers were used in
Europe. From about 1400 to 1600 the craft of armouring
was at its height and some of the most beautiful pieces of
art were manufactured by incremental techniques. During
that time thin metallic parts were mainly made from
hammering raw material that had the initial shape of a flat

(c)
Figure 3: (a) Ancient hammer and anvil, (b) medieval
blacksmith, (c) steam hammer from the time of the
industrial revolution, sources: Gallery of Early
Blacksmithing, North Carolina Archive.

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th

new incremental processes were developed. Leonardo

da Vinci designed a water-powered rolling mill for the
production of iron staves for cannons as shown in Figure
5. Flat rolling replaced the old technique of producing
sheet metal by incremental hammering. This had
significant economical advances. The demand for new
products also affected the development of new
processes. When there was a market for seamless tubes
and rings, new rolling processes were developed for
these products, like the ring rolling and the pierce rolling
process shown also in Figure 5 [8, 10].

pancake. In the 15 century the first rolling mills were

invented, but rolled sheet metal had only limited quality.
During the industrial revolution in Britain some important
discoveries were made. In the year 1709 Abraham Darby
used coke instead of charcoal to produce iron for the first
time. The steam hammer was invented in 1837 by James
Nasmith. And in 1855 Henry Bessemer patented his
Bessemer process for the refining of raw iron. Until the
time of the industrial revolution most of the iron in the
world was produced as wrought iron with the method
invented by the Hittites nearly 3000 years before. But now
for the first time in history it was possible to produce high
quality raw material in great quantity and to process it to
industrial products. New applications were possible like
high rise buildings, bridges, the railway or large ocean
liners. With the development of electrical and hydraulic
drives the technology for mass production was finally
available in the 20th century. As a result, the old craft of
incremental metal working has largely fallen into oblivion
with the exception of some special high-tech applications
that are in current use [8, 9].
1.2 Technical and economical advances
Recent advances can in general be divided into process
and into product related progress. Process related
progress is based on the equipment and machinery as
well as the process specific knowledge. Important
improvements are the shortening of cycle times and an
advanced output, an increase of reproducibility, the
possibility to substitute manual operations by automation
and the availability of high process forces. Process
related progress is illustrated by the development of
forging equipment for incremental forming in Figure 3 and
4.

(a)

(d)

(b)
(e)

(f)
(c)

Figure 6: (a) Copper axes from Neolithic Age, (b) Iron Age
tools, (c) Renaissance armor, (d) segment of Ariane
booster, (e) hollow shaft, (f) clutch carrier and internal
gear, sources: Carnet/MDC, Markham Museum, Hermann
Historica, Aerospace technology, PtU Darm-stadt, Leico.

(b)

(a)

(c)

(d)
Figure 7: Weights of iron blooms excavated in Europe
plotted against time [6].

Figure 5: (a) Rolling mill designed by Leonardo da Vinci in

the 15th century, (b) pierce rolling process invented by
Reinhard and Max Mannesmann in 1885, (c) modern ring
rolling process, (d) pierce rolling process, sources:
science and society, IBF Aachen, Mannesmann Archiv.

The availability of metallic materials was significantly

improved over the centuries. If the weight of iron blooms
is plotted against time as shown in Figure 7, it can be
seen that there was a peak in productivity during the
Roman Empire. Since the end of the Middle Ages, the
output weight has increased progressively. This is due to
the fact that the incremental techniques, which are too
laborious for the initial material production from metallic
ores, were replaced by refining [6]. In the 19th and 20th

The use of incremental rolling techniques did not start

until the Renaissance. The required precision of a rolling
mill and the need for process control that is more complex
than that needed for hand driven forging had not been
feasible until then. With rolling technology established

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incremental manufacturing increasingly [12]. Also the

possibility of using incremental forming processes for the
assembly of components is an emerging field.
Another aspect is the production of parts at a very large
scale in smallest series. Typical examples are shafts for
power plants or large vessels or the hull of booster
rockets for space flight. These parts have to withstand
highest loadings when they are in use. Incremental
production ensures hardening of the material and an
optimized grain structure caused by the high number of
forming cycles during manufacturing [13]. The low
process forces result in low friction and wear, while local
tool loads can be very high in small areas causing
failures. Many incremental processes feature complex
kinematics that have to be controlled. In some cases this
can be a restriction together with the necessary
experience in this technology. Finally there are several
efforts to apply incremental forming to the production of
net-shape parts, which is concurrent to machining
operations. This approach is especially used for the
production of drive system components [14, 15].

centuries, in addition to copper alloys and ferrous

materials, new metallic materials that could be shaped
with incremental forming were used, e.g. aluminium,
titanium, magnesium, cobalt or nickel alloys. Incremental
processing of these materials has been investigated in
recent decades and is now successfully applied in
industry. In many cases incremental bulk forming can
simplify the processing of hard-to-form materials because
of its advantageous stress states.
The product related progress compared to techniques
used in the past should be considered with respect to the
purpose of the manufactured part. The variety of
producible shapes and materials in one-piece design has
increased over the centuries. Process developments have
also led to improved tolerances for finished parts, the
ability to form very large or very small parts, enhanced
and adjustable material properties and the integration of
additional functions. However, at present, the effort of
producing a part in a die-defined operation is lower
compared to incremental manufacturing, while machining
yields higher accuracy. For that reason the application of
incremental processes has to be planned very carefully to
use its advances in an effective way [11].
Economical

2 DEFINITION AND CHARACTERIZATION

The previous section has shown how incremental bulk
forming processes have a long history and how
commercial demand for flexible production has motivated
recent interest in automating what were previously craft
processes. In this section incremental bulk forming
processes are defined in order to develop a means to
classify the range of processes. Such classification is
useful both for identifying similarities between different
processes and for facilitating the search for novel, as yet
untested, processes. The following section will use this
classification to present current process developments.

Technological

High flexibility

Net-shape-products

Low investment

Low friction and wear

Low tooling costs

Hardening and grain

structure
High local tool loads

Low productivity

Complex process control

Experience driven
technology

2.1 General definition and features

Within this paper, the following definition will be used:
In an incremental bulk forming process, regions of the
workpiece experience more than one loading and
unloading cycle due to the action of one set of tools within
one production stage.
The definition has three key components. At any instance
in time, an incremental process creates deformation
within regions of the workpiece, not the whole so
extrusion and upsetting, for instance, are clearly not
incremental. In strip and long product rolling, the
deformation occurs only within one region of a product,
but these are not incremental processes because each
material particle is deformed only once. Processes that do
not satisfy the definition above are called die-defined
processes because the shape of the finished parts is
totally defined by the geometry of the dies. In contrast, in
incremental processes the shape is at least partially
generated by the kinematics of the tools. Some regions of
the workpiece will experience more than one loading and
unloading cycle, as the tools of the process traverse the
workpiece. In tandem rolling of strip, each material
particle is deformed several times as it passes through
different stands of the mill. However, the tandem mill is a
series of separate processes. In contrast, in an
incremental process multiple loading cycles occur due to
the action of one set of tools within one production stage.
The separation of incremental sheet and incremental bulk
processes is somewhat problematic. There are many
configurations of incremental sheet forming processes, as
reviewed by Jeswiet et al. [16], all of which satisfy the
above definition. However, although these processes are
applied to sheet workpieces, they typically lead to a small
deformation zone which varies throughout sheet
thickness so locally share many of the characteristics of

Table 1: Positive and negative aspects of the application

of incremental bulk forming processes with respect to
economical and technological criteria.
1.3 Motivation for application of incremental bulk
forming processes
While man was obliged to use incremental processes in
the past, this technology has now become uncommon.
This is mainly due to the competing technologies that are
available today. While in the past metallic products were
individual items, they are manufactured in series
nowadays. There are economical reasons to use
incremental forming while there are also several
technological advantages. In particular, the flexibility and
the lower forces compared to die-defined forming are
important as well as the properties and formability of the
finished parts that will be presented in section 4.4.
Competing technologies are mainly die-defined forming
and machining. On the one hand manufacturing by diedefined forming processes is more efficient in many cases
and on the other hand cutting operations allow for more
complex shapes. However, there are several aspects that
are capable to turn the application of incremental
processes into an attractive option again. This is possible
if the investment and tooling costs become the
determining factor or if other processes are to be
integrated. Incremental processes typically operate with
simple tools and low forces, while a wide range of
products can be manufactured with no or only minor
changes to the tooling system. If the production needs to
be flexible to the customers needs, the application of
incremental processes can be very profitable. This is for
example the case in the automotive industry that is using

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bulk forming. This problem is particularly apparent in

recent developments of micro-forming processes, several
of which (for instance the extrusion of micro-billets [17])
use sheet metal as a blank but are in all other respects
bulk forming processes. For the purposes of this paper,
incremental bulk forming processes are those which
apply to workpieces which are not, initially, thin in one
dimension ie which do not have the characteristics of
sheet, tube or wire.
In the introduction, and in section 3 to follow, a wide
variety of incremental bulk forming processes is
illustrated with diverse product geometries and process
configurations. Despite this diversity, they share several
key features:

Thomsen et
al. [17]

Machine and tool design

Incremental processes typically have relatively small
simple tools, which experience reduced forces compared
to their non-incremental equivalents, so machines can be
lighter for equivalent stiffness. However, incremental
processes must generally allow more degrees of freedom
in moving the tool, so are more complex and require
more complex control. The increased tool motion
combined with longer cycle times in incremental
processes may lead to increased tool wear. Machine
design may include the controlled application of heat
globally or locally to the workpiece.

Blazynski
[18]

Kudo [19]

Lange [20]

Process mechanics
Deformation is generally not steady-state in incremental
processes, and the forming zone is usually embedded
within elastic zones. Typically gradients of stress are
higher than in conventional processes.
Generally
incremental processes experience continuous contact
change between tool and workpiece through a long
process cycle, so process modelling is arduous.

Process operation
Incremental processes have slower cycle times than diedefined processes but generally have much faster setup
times as they do not require manufacture of dedicated
tooling. Control of incremental processes may combine
an open-loop tool path planning algorithm with closed
loop feedback control. An attraction of such feedback is
that, for the first time in automated production, corrective
forming can be achieved. However, feedback control
depends on the availability of suitably fast sensors and
process models for predictive control. Only few
processes can be modelled with sufficient speed to allow
this. Combined control of temperature and deformation
suggests future possibilities in controlling product
microstructure as well as geometry.
The area of incremental bulk forming is expanding rapidly
with new process designs, and the common features
above indicate a shared set of challenges for process
development. Many of these challenges relate to the
difficulty of predicting the effect of the next tool move on
the workpiece. The processes currently in commercial
use or near to implementation are generally those which
are most predictable.

Allwood and
Utsunomiya
[21]

Approximate state of stress

(squeezing, drawing, bending)
Instantaneous zone of deformation
(whole part or zone)
State of deformation (nonsteady or
steady)
Stress system (triaxial
compression, biaxial compression,
biaxial tension, biaxial tension +
uniaxial compression, uniaxial
tension + uniaxial compression,
uniaxial tension + biaxial
compression)
Initial workpiece geometry
Extent of deformation zone and
state of strain
State of stress (direct, auxiliary,
hydrostatic)
Deformation sequence
(intermittent, continuous, general)
Tool geometry
Means of power transmission to
workpiece
Others working temperature and
speed
Material behaviour in the plastic
zone
Characteristics of the workpiece
before deformation
Boundary between tools and
workpiece (friction, lubrication and
wear)
Tool layout and materials
Surface reactions between
workpiece and surrounding area
Design of machine tool
Integration of metal forming
process into production system as
a whole
Initial workpiece geometry
Source of flexibility (local tool
movement, multiple passes,
multiple actuators)
High or low hydrostatic stress
Continuous or intermittent
deformation
Tool and workpiece interaction
(sliding, rolling, impact, noncontact, stationary)

Table 2: Parameters used to classify metal forming

processes.
A useful classification scheme will help to identify
similarities between processes and to inspire novel
designs. The challenge of classifying incremental bulk
forming processes is a subset of the generic problem
addressed by the authors in table 2 and can be achieved
by a subset of the tables parameters. All five schemes
make some use of the state of stress in the workpiece to
distinguish processes. Within bulk forming operations,
tension is not common and can only be applied to long
products by grippers acting away from the deformation
zone.
Therefore a subset of Blazynskis stress
characterisation is used. The remaining four authors
also agree on the use of time variation in deformation
in particular whether it is continuous or intermittent to
distinguish processes, and this is also useful for the
present need. Thus the main axes used to characterise
incremental bulk forming processes will be

2.2 Classification
The problem of classifying metal forming processes has
attracted several efforts in the past 50 years, but has yet
to lead to a convincing solution due to the number of
parameters that may be used. Table 2 provides a
compact survey of the key parameters used in five
classification schemes proposed by Thomsen et al. [18],
Blazynski [19], Kudo [20], Lange [21], and Allwood and
Utsunomiya [21]. The widely used German DIN scheme
[23] is mainly based on the stress state in the workpiece.

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[26] has attempted to specify all possible designs of future

ring rolling machines. While such approaches are always
limited by the assumptions on which they are built, they
offer an interesting opportunity for process innovation
particularly at this relatively early stage in the
development of novel incremental processes.

Stress system (Uniaxial compression, Uniaxial

compression + uniaxial tension, Biaxial compression,
Biaxial compression + uniaxial tension, Triaxial
compression)

x Deformation sequence (intermittent, continuous)

The stress system is clearly a crude categorisation, and is
applied at the centre of the deformation zone - with
uniaxial, biaxial or triaxial used to distinguish stress states
with one, two or three dominant components. In addition,
workpiece geometry mentioned by the last three authors
in table 3 provides a useful means to find similarities
between processes. For instance, orbital forging and ring
rolling are mechanically similar. Three initial workpiece
shapes will be considered:
x

Billet (brick shape or plug shape)

Long product (bars or rods)

INNOVATIVE
PRODUCT
AND
PROCESS
EXAMPLES
Some of the processes listed in table 3 are relatively
mature as was shown in section 1, but the interest of this
paper is in exploring the rapid growth in incremental bulk
forming processes from innovative concept through to
commercialisation. This section provides examples of
various contrasting innovative processes at different
stages of the journey to commercialisation.
3.1 Orbital forming
Orbital forming is an example of an incremental process
with a continuous deformation sequence and mainly
uniaxial compressive stresses. This is a mature
technology, related to ring rolling and the processes of
tube nosing and flaring. Figure 8 illustrates a schematic
of the process and several products, included flanged
automotive parts.

x Rings
Using this simple parameterisation of processes, table 3
presents a classification of all known incremental bulk
forming processes. A selection of exemplar processes in
table 3 will be discussed in more detail in section 3.

Uniaxial
compression
Uniaxial
compression +
Uniaxial
tension

B
L
R
B
L
R

Stress system

B
Biaxial
compression

Deformation sequence
Intermittent
Continuous
Orbital forging,
B
Grob process
In-plane strip
L
bending
R Ring rolling
unlikely
B
unlikely
L Helical rolling
unlikely
Rotary
swaging
Incremental
forging, Rotary
swaging, Flow
forming, Cross
rolling

R
Biaxial
compression +
Uniaxial
tension
Triaxial
compression

R
B

Thread rolling,
Roto-Flo
process [24]
Figure 8: Orbital forming, source: Timken.

Incremental
ring rolling,
R
Flexible wheel
rolling
B
unlikely
L

B
L

unlikely

unlikely

Localised
hammering

L
R

unlikely

While in conventional cold forming the force is applied

over the entire surface of the part, in orbital forging it is
applied only on a small segment. The orbiting upper die
rolls over the part. Therefore, friction is reduced
substantially and the metal can flow much more easily in
the radial direction (rolling friction instead of sliding
friction).
Compared to conventional cold forming, the orbital forging
process offers the following advantages:

unlikely
Roller
burnishing

L
R Gear rolling

Table 3: Classification of incremental bulk forming

processes (B - billet, L - long product, R - ring).

smaller presses (investment, space requirement)

smaller stresses in dies (tooling costs)

longer die life

x reduction of noise and vibrations

Orbital forging also offers the advantage that substantially
higher forming ratios can be achieved. This can eliminate
expensive progressive dies and reduce related set-up
times to a fraction. These facts make orbital forging
economical, particularly in medium and small batch
production. In many cases, this process is the only
economically feasible way to cold form small batches of
parts that, otherwise, would have to be machined [27 35].

The classification scheme of table 3 indicates various

process development opportunities as a number of the
cells in the table are currently empty. This feature of
classification schemes identification of missing
processes gives the possibility of developing a
structured search for new processes. An early example
of this approach, by Roth [25] attempted to classify all
possible forging processes, and more recently Allwood

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biaxial stresses was originally explored by Ferrera and

Osman in Bath [48], and also by Kopp et al. in Aachen
[49]. In both cases a robot was used to place a long
product in a forge, and by repeated movement and
deformation a controllable curvature was created. An
alternative configuration in figure 10c [50] has a long flat
strip fed into a forge with wedge-shaped dies, and by
controlling the feed between strokes, a variable in-plane
curvature of the strip can be created. A further variant in
figure 10d [51] shows forging combined with twisting in
the manufacture of turbine blades.

3.2 Incremental ring rolling

Ring rolling is in general a continuous process in a biaxial
compressive stress state. The idea of flexible ring rolling
dates back to work in the early 1980s at Hitachi
Corporation in Japan [36] aimed at flexible production of
railway wheels. This idea was applied in Aachen [37] for
axial rolling, and a wide-ranging exploration of radial
incremental ring rolling [38] included industry studies.
Figure 9 shows schematics of the incremental process
in both axial and radial configurations in which a narrow
mandrel can move with increased degrees of freedom to
allow some flexibility. Bearing rings can be formed by cold
incremental ring rolling for example. The figure also
shows the cross-section of a part made from wax as a
simulation of hot incremental ring rolling. The key
challenge in incremental ring rolling is to cope with the
more complex flow of material away from the narrow
mandrel which tends to cause conicity defects in radial
rolling and dishing in axial rolling. At present this limits the
industrial applicability of the process to rather shallow
profiles, but future process innovation in which the ring is
more heavily constrained may increase the range of
achievable profiles. A model machine has been built in
Cambridge to explore this possibility [39].

Figure 9: Incremental ring rolling, source: IBF Aachen.

A key outcome of the trials in cold incremental ring rolling
was that despite the increased stress gradients of the
incremental process, the residual stresses remaining in
the ring after processing were no more severe than those
from conventional ring rolling [40 - 47].
3.3 Incremental forging
The design of an incremental forging process differs from
that of the two processes described above in which
flexibility is achieved through increased freedom in the
motion of the tools. Instead in incremental forging
processes, flexibility arises from increased control of
workpiece placement in a conventional forge. The
process that is based on intermittent deformation and

Figure 10: Incremental forging, source: IBF Aachen.

For most variants of these processes, no commercial
implementations of incremental forging have been

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problem was developed at the Institute for Production

Engineering and Forming Machines at Darmstadt
University of Technology. It is called Axial-Radial-Forming
and represents a combination of rotary swaging and
lateral extrusion [54]. The shaft collar here is formed by
crushing the material into engraved die segments of a
Rotary Swaging machine. The local material flow
behaviour of the workpiece is affected by partial heating
prior to the forming operation [55 - 57].
Another important application is the GFM Precision
Rotary Forge process for the production of parts with high
quality.

reported, and precise geometric control remains difficult

robots are notoriously flexible, and forged parts are
typically heavy. Despite the apparent flexibility of handling
the workpiece with a robot, the more conservative
approach of feeding the workpiece through the forge in a
linear manner may be a safer route for initial
implementation [52, 53].
3.4 Rotary swaging
Rotary swaging is a process for changing the cross
section of a tubular or solid bar stock. It is classified by an
intermittent deformation and a biaxial effective stress
state. Most applications involve the reduction of diameter
and the tapering of round tubing or solid bars. Other
shapes can be swaged as well, such as square or
hexagonal cross-sections into round profiles or vice
versa. Moreover, for some typical parts, e. g. drive shafts,
rotary swaging already dominates cutting processes.
Regarding the power train of an automobile, further parts
(e. g. gear shafts) can be found which are suitable to be
manufactured by this process as well. The drawback here
is the shaft collar which represents a local increase of
outside diameter. A new process to solve this

RECENT PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES

4.1 Machines
Incremental processes typically use relatively small and
simple tools, which experience reduced forces compared
to their non-incremental equivalents, so machines can be
lighter for equivalent stiffness. However, incremental
processes must generally allow more degrees of freedom
in moving the tool, so they are more complex and require
a control that is more complex. Regarding the different
press types, there are typical characteristics of each
actuation (Table 4). Mechanical presses have the
advantage of a high yield rate in relation to hydraulic
presses. Mechanical presses are classified in presses
with crank mechanism and cam mechanism, where
presses with crank mechanism are used for higher
process forces and presses with cam mechanism for
processes with complex path time behaviour and high
stroke rates. Regarding a flexibly adjustable path time
and force time behaviour, mechanical presses possess
substantial disadvantages. The processes are rigidly
coupled to the kinematics of the drive components. High
forces may call for hydraulic drive systems that are
applicable in particular for slow movements for example
the adjustment of pressure rolls as shown in Figure 12.
In order to realise press ram movements optimally coordinated for different forming operations a number of
modified drives on mechanical base were developed. In
order to uncouple the press ram movement completely
from mechanics and to achieve the highest possible
flexibility, there are efforts to implement the press ram

Figure 11: Rotary swaging, source: PtU Darmstadt.

Figure 12: Control strategy, source: Fraunhofer IWU.

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movements from which the operator can select during the

definition and programming of the ram movements.
Similar to the effect of introducing CNC-main-axis into the
equipment of lathes, which expands the possible field of
application dramatically and turns the machine into a
machining center, the new generations of linear and servo
presses enable new forming centers. As demonstrated by
the described new system, the integration of process
steps, usually reserved to other specialized forming
machines, is practicable with two additional controlled
ram-axes. Thereby the main features of pressproductivity, like stroke rate and energy efficiency, do not
decrease.

flexibility, there are efforts to implement the press ram

movement by a direct conversion of electricity by means
of linear motors [64]. This form of the press drive unites
the advantages of mechanical and hydraulic presses and
opens new possibilities regarding the process control and
adjustment. Linear motor presses allow a direct pressram-actuation and very high punching frequencies as well
as high accelerations with an adaptable path time
behaviour. By using forming units, which are driven about
linear motors, complex metal parts can be manufactured
with ideal path-time behaviour for the individual stages.
Press type

Characteristics

mechanical
press

- high yield rate

- coupled to the kinetic of the
drive components

[59]

hydraulic
press

- flexible press ram movement

- high forces

[5960]

servo motor
press

- flexible press ram movement

- tilting press ram
- limited forces

4.2 Process planning

The planning of innovative incremental bulk forming
processes ideally requires extended process simulations
supplying not only the material flow but also the product
properties such as hardness distribution, residual
stresses, microstructure etc. These simulations are based
widely on finite element models that have to cope with the
characteristics of incremental forming processes as
described in the next section. The recent progress made
in modelling incremental bulk forming processes as well
as the current challenges will be described in the following
sections.

[61][64]

Table 4: Characteristics of different press types.

Characteristics of incremental forming processes

In incremental bulk forming the plastic deformation zone
is imbedded in elastic material regions. The active plastic
deformation zone is small compared to the overall
domain. Furthermore, the active contact zone is small
compared to the workpiece size. Also multiple passes are
often applied. From the modelling point of view these
characteristics lead to the following consequences:

At the moment, the availability of servo- or torque motors

with high torque outputs enables the upgrade and
improvement of mechanical presses [58]. While press
machines receive their requisite torque for generating the
press-force by the RPM-loss of a flywheel, the modern
servo-drive units can generate the required torque
directly. This provides the opportunity to design
mechanical presses with relatively high press capacity but
without the need of energy accumulating flywheels. The
main and innovating consequence of avoiding the mass
of a flywheel is the possibility to control the ram in every
state of movement. If the ram position is back coupled to
a unit that controls the servo motor, a machine system
which commonly is called a servo-press is generated.
This type of forming machine is adequate for many
incremental forming processes [57,62,63].
While the first generation of servo presses focuses on the
variation of the stroke- and the forging- or stampingmovement enabled by the servo drive, the second
generation gives the possibility to control the unavoidable
tilting of the ram when operating the press with eccentric
forces. Because tilting under these conditions is partly
caused by the different elastic deformation of the driving
gears it can never be avoided by the quality of the design
alone.
Compared to mechanical driven systems, the complexity
of control increases significantly. In servo-press systems,
it is necessary to avoid losses in the maximum number of
strokes per minute, caused by the time of control.
Thereby the maximum speed during production
processes is only limited by the characteristics of the
servo motor. During the mode of adjustment, the system
"has to learn" the required velocity -profile and the
resulting effects on forces and torsion moments. During
the automatic mode, this stored profile is the virtual
master drive for the control unit and thus makes possible
the coupled interactions between several drive systems
and axes (Figure 12).
It is obvious, that the possibility of free adjustment of the
axes instead of one axis creates the need for suitable
human-machine-interfaces (HMI). One possibility is to use
a joystick during the machine adjustment in the teach-inmode. Another way is to build up a library of ram

The contact region is small compared to the overall

workpiece dimensions. Compared to classical bulk
forming processes the relative contact zone is about
two orders of magnitude smaller in incremental bulk
forming processes.

The contact region is continuously moving through the

workpiece so that, ideally, a fine mesh discretization is
required throughout the workpiece

Since the overall plastic deformation is achieved in

small steps, ideally many deformation steps are
necessary.
These characteristics of incremental forming processes
force the model to have, ideally, a large number of
elements and large number of time steps [65].
Furthermore, the elastic neighbourhood of the
deformation zone necessitates the use of elastic-plastic
material laws.
A further characteristic of incremental bulk forming is that
deformation is principally not steady state. Therefore,
steady-state solutions as applied in some classical bulk
forming processes such as plane rolling are ideally not
possible. Also two-dimensional simplifications are usually
not possible and symmetry planes do not usually exist.
Also the tool kinematics is often complicated and contact
between tool and workpiece can be temporarily lost.
Finally, since incremental bulk forming processes exhibit
more than one loading and unloading cycle, regions with
eventually varying strain paths occur so that simple
monotonic constitutive material laws should ideally not be
applied to these processes.
Because of these characteristics of incremental bulk
forming processes the thorough modelling of them
requires computational times that extent to months on
typical fast computers and data storage that reaches
several hundreds of GBytes. For this reason, special

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Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulations are

appropriate to deal with the feature of incremental
processes that the deformation zone is much smaller than
the overall workpiece dimensions. The formulation allows
the separation of the material and computational
reference frames, so that, for instance, a fine mesh can
be kept at the deformation region and a coarse mesh
elsewhere [75]. The relative motion between the material
and computational reference frames requires the
inclusion of convective terms in the formulation. Typical
studies on the application of ALE to the incremental
forming process ring-rolling are given in [76 - 81]. Recent
developments described in [81] report on various
methods to improve the mapping of the computational
mesh to the material mesh, improving accuracy in
maintaining a constant workpiece volume.

modelling methods have been developed to enable

feasible analysis of incremental bulk forming processes
as described in the next section.
Models with high computational efficiency
Models suggested in the literature to increase
computational efficiency can be grouped into two basic
categories: Models that can be applied to all incremental
bulk forming processes (General Models) and models that
can be applied only to specific processes (Special
Models).
Method

Processes analysed

References

Dynamic
Explicit

Ring-rolling and
pilgering

[67 - 74]

Arbitrary
LagrangianEulerian (ALE)

Ring-rolling

[76 - 81]

Hybrid Mesh

Ring-rolling and multipass forging

[82 - 89]

Multigrid
Methods

Ring-rolling and
incremental forging

[90]

SuperElements

Orbital forging

[91]

SelfSimilarity

Ring-rolling, flowforming and rotary

swaging

[92, 93]
Figure 14: Hybrid mesh approach: (a) Actually Rotating
Mesh System, (b) Spatially Fixed Mesh System [85].

Table 5: Summary of general models.

General methods
Promising recent methods are summarized in Table 5.
Dynamic explicit methods are extensively used for
instance to model ring rolling [67 - 73] and pilgering
processes [74] since they are robust (variable contact
conditions are easier to handle) and computationally
efficient. Dop [68] reports that the speed-up by dynamic
explicit methods is about 22 as compared to static implicit
methods. Pauskar [70] emphasizes that mass scaling is
necessary to speed up the computations in dynamic
explicit methods and that this must not be used
aggressively. Also the problem of volume increase is
addressed in this study. Finally, explicit methods are not
able to compute residual stresses accurately while being
computationally efficient at the same time. Figure 13
shows dynamic explicit finite element simulation results
for the cold ring rolling process of a CV joint cage [70].
The product geometry is predicted with an accuracy of 0.5
mm, whereas the load prediction deviates by more than
25%. This may be caused by the mass scaling, material
modelling and the volume increase.

Hybrid mesh formulations differ from ALE in that two

distinct meshes are constructed for the material and for
computational purposes. The first study known to apply
this idea is [82]. In this study an Actually Rotating Mesh
System (AMS) and a Spatially Fixed Mesh System
(SMS) is introduced (Figure 14). The AMS is the fine
mesh containing all the data for the process such as
velocities, equivalent strains, etc., whereas the SMS is
the coarser mesh that is used to solve the field equations.
In [83, 84], based on [82], an efficient dual mesh model
has been developed that speeds up the computations by
a factor of eight compared to conventional models. The
SMS and the AMS are made the same in the deformation
zone, so that interpolation is only necessary in the other
regions and hence interpolation errors are reduced
considerably. In [85] a commercial finite element code
based on the hybrid mesh method for ring-rolling is
evaluated.

Figure 15: Comparison of hybrid method with conventional method as applied to multi-pass forging [88].
In [86 - 89] a hybrid mesh method has been applied to
ring-rolling and multi-pass forging (Figure 15). Here the
AMS is named the geometry mesh and the SMS the

Figure 13: Simulation of the cold ring rolling of a CV joint

cage [70].

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In [92, 93] the idea of self-similarity has been used to

model various incremental bulk forming processes. The
method utilizes the quasi-periodicity of solution sets in
incremental bulk forming processes and describes this
periodicity by self-similarity rules. An example of
applications is given in Figure 18. Here a gear rolling
process is modelled efficiently by the proposed method.
Rotary swaging is another example of application [93].

simulation. The hybrid-method in this example is faster by

72% as compared to the conventional method. Also, in
[88, 89] microstructural modelling is realized. In [88] the
critical issues of the hybrid mesh method are pointed out:
No remeshing is performed on the AMS mesh and in case
of state variables that change their values drastically
outside of the deformation zone, such as temperature, the
accuracy of the hybrid mesh method is reduced.

Figure 16: Basic idea of multi-grid technique [90].

Multi-grid methods are iterative solution schemes for
systems of equations. The basic idea is to solve the
system of equations over a set of hierarchical grids to
achieve efficient error reduction (Figure 16). In [90] an
algebraic multi-grid method is introduced that is based on
multi-grid
components
without
any
geometrical
information. The method is applied to ring-rolling and
incremental forging.
The superelement technique has been applied in [91].
The method is based on the idea to reduce the degrees of
freedom of all elements that are outside of the
deformation zone to only six degrees of freedom
representing the rigid-body motion. Naturally this preassumes only rigid-plastic deformations. The approach is
applied to orbital forging (Figure 17) and the
computational time has been reduced by a factor of about
12.

Figure 18: Modelling of gear rolling processes using selfsimilarity [93].

Special methods
Another group of efficient models are the special methods
that are restricted to specific incremental forming
processes. An overview to such methods is given in Table
6.
Method

Specific Process

References

Pseudo PlaneStrain

Ring-rolling

[94 - 100]

Steady State
Partial Models

Ring-Rolling

[101 - 104]

Transient Partial
Models

Ring-Rolling

[105, 106]

Automatic
Expansion of
Domain Method

Radial Forging

[107]

Linearization
Method

Orbital Forging

[108]

Table 6: Summary of special models.

The first known efficient models for simulating specific
incremental bulk forming are given in [94 - 96]. Here a
pseudo plane strain model has been applied to plain ring
rolling. The key idea is the modelling of the radial sections
of the ring with two-dimensional finite element models for
which the normal (circumferential) strain rates are
determined iteratively. Despite the extra iterations and
multiple radial section computations, this approach
provides the first efficient solution strategy since only two-

Figure 17: Superelement technique applied to orbital

forging [91].

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velocities is realized into rigid-body and deformation

portions in order to reduce the volume loss. Figure 22
shows the application of this to orbital forging.

dimensional computations are performed. Similar studies

are given by [96 - 99] as described in [100, 101].
Another method for efficient analysis of particular
incremental bulk forming processes has been presented
in [102, 103]. Here, a portion of the workpiece around the
forming zone in ring rolling is modelled. The slice is
assumed to be not moving (steady state partial models).
In [102] a plane-strain slice is modelled, whereas in [103,
104] three-dimensional segments are employed. An
axisymmetrical model of this has been presented in [104,
105].
rigid surfaces

Figure 21: Automatic domain expansion method for radial

forging process [107].

ring

mandrel

Figure 19: Partial ring method with oscillating rigid

boundary surfaces [105].
t
ElasticRegion
ElasticRegion

Ring
Segment
RigidSurfaces
ElasticRegion
ElasticRegion

Figure 20: Partial ring method with oscillating elastic

boundary surfaces [106].

Figure 22: Simulation of orbital forging process by the

linearization method [108].

Recently two transient partial models have been

introduced in [105, 106] for ring rolling. In both cases a
sector of the ring around the deformation zone is
modelled that is, however, allowed to oscillate as in the
actual applications. In Figure 19 the partial ring model
with oscillating rigid end surfaces is shown. As the
deformation proceeds the ring expands out of the rigid
boundary wedge [105]. An improvement of this model
allowing also warping of the cross-sections is given in
Figure 20. Here, elastic boundary layers have been
added to the model allowing out-of-plane deformations
along the axes of the rolls [106]. In the same figure a time
comparison is given for an Intel P4 HT 2.6 GHz, 1.5GB
RAM hardware. The speed-up is about a factor of 20 as
compared to a full ring model.
Radial forging is a typical incremental bulk forming
process that requires several tens to hundreds of forging
steps with small plastic deformations and the simulation is
hence as all incremental processes time intensive. An
elegant method to reduce the computational time is the
recently introduced automatic domain expansion method
[107]. In this method the forging domain is expanded
during the course of the forming process (Figure 21). For
a rigid-plastic material law the boundary conditions at the
expanded domains correspond to either fixed rigid bodies
or to translating rigid bodies. This procedure enables the
reduction of computational times by a factor of 3 to 4.
In [108] a rigid-plastic material law with a linearization
scheme is employed and a speed-up about 10 is
achieved. The key idea is simply to solve the state
equations using the strain-rates of the previous
increment. By this just a linear set of equations is solved
only once at every increment. This requires however to
use small time steps. In addition, a decomposition of

Current challenges
Modelling of incremental bulk forming processes is still
exposed to several challenges. One basic challenge is
the appropriate modelling of the material constitutive
behaviour. In many incremental forming processes a
material element is exposed on one hand to cyclic loading
and unloading states and on the other hand, the strain
paths are changing from one cycle to another one. This is
the most ambitious type of material behaviour and
represents a real challenge for the accurate modelling of
incremental forming processes. The effect of strain path
dependency has been investigated by Sillekens et al.
[109, 110].
In their studies the effect of tensioncompression and torsion-tension loading sequences have
been analysed. Significant effects on the flow stresses
(changes of about 20%) have been found. In these
studies only a single cycle has been considered. Similar
results are reported by Wanheim et al. [111]. Other
studies are reviewed in Bariani et al. [112]. The effect of
cyclic loading combined with a change of strain path has
been covered in a recent study of Meyer et al. [113].
Figure 23 shows for instance the effect of cyclic torsion of
42CrMo4 for large forward shear strain amplitudes and
different portions of back deformations. With increasing
back deformation the stress-strain curve deviates
significantly from the monotonic curve.
The accurate prediction of product properties is another
challenge for modelling incremental bulk forming
processes. The basic issue here is the fact that numerical
models include various simplifications to increase their
computational efficiency. Hence, rigid-plastic models
neglect elastic deformations and are therefore not able to

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accuracy), this is still not enough. The analysis of

complicated incremental models currently requires
computational times up to a full day, which is not
appropriate for iterative analysis of new processes. One
solution to this dilemma is obviously applying parallel
processing technologies. Quigley & Monaghan [114]
applied a domain composition method based on a
network of single and dual processor computers utilizing a
commercial simulation software. In their study they
modelled the spinning process. Figure 25 shows
impressively how the computational time has been
reduced almost by a factor of four with four single
processor machines. However, for more than four
processors, no significant improvement im computational
time is noticed. Since eight domains are used for
modelling, this stagnation of the speed-up obviously
needs further investigation.
Another approach for
increasing computational efficiency is the application of
meshless methods [116]. Yet, further developments are
necessary to bring these methods to everyday
application.

predict residual stresses and spring-back. Explicit models,

on the other hand, show low accuracy in stress
predictions due to the simplified element formulations
(one-point-integration). So, they can predict residual
stresses only with large errors. The yield strength
distribution of incrementally formed bulk parts is also
inaccurate in case of cyclic and non-monotonic loadings.
Figure 24 shows comprehensive results by Tekkaya et al.
[114] in which various numerical models are compared
with each other and experimental results. The
circumferential residual stresses in incremental ring rolling
show a rather good agreement with the full finite element
model and the so-called velocity-coupling segment model
(VCM). Unfortunately, the stresses on the form roll side
do not show such a good agreement and clearly expose
the existing challenge.

Figure 23: Effect of strain path on stress-strain behaviour

of 42CrMo4 during cyclic loading [113].

Figure 25: Speed-up of spinning simulation using parallel

processing [115].
4.3 Failure modes
The observed failure modes of incremental bulk forming
are not very different from the limits of forming processes
in general. Limitations arise from tool respectively from
workpiece failures.
Tool failure

Workpiece failure

Fracture

Underfilling

Buckling

Wrinkling/Buckling
Surface disruption

Wear

Crack formation
Scale formation

Table 7: Common failure modes of incremental bulk

forming divided into tool failures and workpiece failures.
In this context the influence of incremental processes on
the limitations listed in table 7 is of interest. Due to the
cyclic behaviour of the processes only a small area of the
workpiece is in contact with the tools at one time. This
causes high local tool loads with a cyclic recurrence that
can lead to fatigue failures and finally to fracture of the
tools. Typical examples where these tool failures can be
observed are gear rolling processes [117 - 119]. A broken
mandrel after flow forming of an internal gear is shown in
Figure 26. Furthermore the localized contact can cause
buckling of the tools if the geometry allows it. This is also
shown in Figure 26 for the spin extrusion process. Local
tool loadings and instabilities can be minimized by an

Figure 24: Prediction of residual stresses in incremental

ring rolling [114], (a) principle of incremental ring rolling,
(b) segment model, (c) comparison of measured
circumferential residual stresses with finite element
computations.
A final challenge is the efficiency of the numerical models.
Although smart modelling increases computational speed
compared to full analysis modelling, by up to one or two
orders of magnitude (usually at the cost of reduced

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should be avoided. For this purpose an exact adjustment

is necessary [133].

optimized workpiece and tool geometry as well as an

improved process control [120 - 123].
(a)

(b)

(c)
(a)

(b)

Figure 26: (a) Flow forming of internal gears, (b) resulting

tool fracture, (c) spin extrusion and resulting buckling of
the mandrel, sources: PtU Darmstadt, Fraunhofer IWU.
The incremental processing has a strong influence
particularly on the workpiece behaviour. One of the
observed phenomena is an increased forming limit of the
workpiece appearing in crack initiation at higher strain
levels. The micro mechanical reason for this behaviour is
not known for sure but it is supposed that it is mainly
caused by the advantageous hydrostatic stress state of
incremental processes. The localized contact of tools and
workpiece results in a high superposed pressure state
that may increase the forming limit compared to diedefined forming as shown in Figure 27 [124]. Additionally
it is important to know the role of cyclic loading on the
distribution of dislocations and to understand how strain
softening and healing mechanisms can be used. The
question of increasing the forming limits with these
principles will further be investigated [125].

Figure 28: (a) Underfilling of rolled rings for tapered roller

bearings, (b) insufficient filling during radial axial forming
with single sided feed motion, sources: Timken, PtU
Darmstadt.
Multiple impacts of the tools are able to destroy the
surface of the workpiece in some cases. Typical failures
are shingling with separation of surface layers or
disruption of surface layers like the examples shown in
Figure 29 [134]. This is often due to high repetitive shear
stresses acting on the surface that can only be eliminated
by optimized tribological systems. The observed
phenomena are not understood well and require further
investigation.

(a)

Figure 27: Increased forming limit of orbital forming

compared to conventional upsetting, source: Timken.

(b)

(c)
Figure 29: (a) Shingling on a rolled anchor, (b) surface
disruption of a radial axial formed part, (c) destroyed
surface of toothings produced by incremental forging,
sources: Hilti, PtU Darmstadt.

Due to the high number of forming steps an underfilling is

rarely observed if compared to die-defined forming.
Nevertheless an insufficient mould filling can occur if the
forming forces are acting in the wrong direction or are too
low. Examples are ring rolling of profiled rings [126 - 128]
or radial axial forming [129 - 132] as given in Figure 28. In
most cases this failure can be eliminated by a modified
process control. For example a slight displacement of the
workpiece during a ring rolling process causes additional
forces that are acting in the direction of the profiled rolls.
The radial axial forming in Figure 11 can be optimized by
a double sided feed motion. If mould filling by the
modified control is achieved an overloading of the tools

In Figure 30 the risk of instabilities like wrinkling or

buckling is recognizable if incremental bulk forming
processes are applied [135]. Sometimes this is more of a
problem compared to concurring techniques since small
defects can intensify themselves from step to step. On
the other hand it is also possible that small defects are
removed from the workpiece during the production.

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Another aspect that is able to improve the strength of

incrementally produced parts is the advantageous grain
structure. If the direction of the grain structure is
visualized by etching as shown in Figure 32, no cut-off in
the structure is observable [140, 141]. This is an
advantage over machined parts because cuts in the grain
structure can cause notch effects that will reduce the
durability. If the part is processed by heat treatment
subsequent to the forming these effects are changed
again.

Generally the danger of defects is small due to the low

process forces.
(a)

(a)
(b)

(c)
(b)

Figure 30: (a) Wrinkling of a rolled anchor, (b) buckling of

a workpiece during axial forming, (c) material wrinkle in a
radial axial formed part, sources: Hilti, PtU Darmstadt.

(c)

(d)

Figure 32: (a) Grain structure orientation for flow splitting,

(b) gear rolling, (c) radial axial forming, (d) rotary swaging,
source: PtU Darmstadt.

Other defects that can occur in the tools or in the

workpiece could be wear or scale formation in the case of
hot forming. No methodical difference between
incremental and die-defined forming concerning these
defects has been identified to date.

It is also possible to improve fatigue life by incremental

forming. Residual stresses that remain in the part cause
high compression that is superposed on any external
loading [142]. The danger of fatigue and crack initiation
can be reduced significantly in this way. Often this effect
is specifically used by incremental processes like roller
burnishing [143]. The workpiece layer near to the surface
features a compressive stress state while the core
material remains unchanged as shown in Figure 33.

4.4 Product properties

The properties of products manufactured by incremental
bulk forming can roughly be divided into technological,
ecological and economical criteria. Focussing on
technological features is useful here as these define other
dependent characteristics. For instance, a light product
with high durability may be resource-saving in many
cases and a net-shape product that was incrementally
formed may be cost-efficient compared to a machined
product with the same geometry [136 - 138].
The technological properties mainly consist of the
mechanical features as well as the micro and macro
geometry. Mechanical characteristics are for example an
increased strength that is caused by strain hardening.
This is of course typical for all kinds of forming processes
especially in cold forming, but in the case of incremental
bulk forming very high local deformation can be reached.
In Figure 31 this is shown for an internal gear that was
produced by flow forming [139]. The tooth root, which is
the area with the highest loading during operation of the
gear, features also the highest strain hardening.

Figure 33: Residual stresses in a cylindrical workpiece

after roller burnishing in simulation and experiment [143].
The micro structure of incrementally produced parts is in
general of high quality. There are little or no structure
defects like cavities, segregation or coarse grains due to
the repeated deformation of the material. This is similar to
the properties of drop forged parts that are often
described as having high quality for this reason [144 146].
Another micro structural aspect is the good surface that
can be produced especially by cold forming. Today it is
possible to realize net-shape parts for some applications
that had to be manufactured by machining not long ago.

Figure 31: Hardness distribution of an internal gear

manufactured by flow forming, source: PtU Darmstadt.

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In terms of the ISO system it is possible to generate

surface tolerances of IT5 with incremental bulk forming.
This is required for functional features with high precision
like threads or teeth as shown in Figure 34. Several
patented incremental bulk forming processes are used for
the production of teeth based on different rolling
strategies [147 - 152].

(a)

integrated machines which perform various operations

in one location

Combination of separated manufacturing processes:

Incremental bulk forming and joining
A particularly good example for an integrated combination
of usually separated manufacturing processes, which can
be found in the field of rolling, is the combination of the
hot ring rolling process with solid state joining.

(b)

(d)
(c)

Figure 34: (a) Toothed parts produced by flow forming, (b)

longitudinal planetary rolling, (c) cross rolling of spur
gears with racks, (d) cross rolling of helical gears with
racks, sources: PtU Darmstadt, Grob, Ex-Cell-O.

Figure 35: Production of clutch housings and wheels

[163].

The limitations for the designer of incrementally

manufactured parts are less restrictive than with
concurrent techniques [153 - 155]. As there is no die that
represents the whole part geometry, partial shape
features are possible. These features can be varied or
repeated on the same workpiece without changing the
tooling system. Furthermore stepped parts with variable
cross sections or hollow structures are realizable [156 161]. The dimensions can vary from few millimetres to
several meters. Typical drive system components for the
automotive industry can be produced in almost the same
way as huge structures. The largest parts that are
processed by open die forging have a mass up to 100
tons [162]. The biggest rolled rings have a diameter of 8
meters and a height of 1.50 meters. Incremental bulk
forming is nearly the only forming process that is used in
the field of very large structures, for example for the
aerospace, ship or plant building industry. In contrast,
applications in the field of micro forming are not known
yet.

Kluge [164] described the rolling of a composite work

piece made of duplex (inner ring) and structural steel.
Starting from an assembled preform composed of two
different rings the process result is a composite ring. To
avoid high temperature oxidation between the contact
zones of the inner and outer ring during heating, it is
necessary to seal the upper and lower surface. By using
the heat generated in the forming process a metallic
compound is established (Figure 36).

4.5 Process Combination

The combination and integration of incremental bulk metal
forming processes offers a high potential for economical
and environmental improvement.
In general, incremental bulk forming processes are part of
larger process chains. Two of numerous possible
examples are the manufacturing of complex transmission
parts such as clutch housings and metal wheels [164].
By starting with a forged preform the products are formed
by flow forming as shown in Figure 35.
Combined Processes or hybrid processes can be
defined as:
x

the integrated combination of usually separated

manufacturing processes (e.g. forming/turning)

Figure 36: Preform and rolled composite ring [165].

the integrated use of various physical mechanisms

(e.g. forming/joining)

Another example of integrated combination of separated

manufacturing processes and of integrated use of
physical mechanisms is the research project [[166].66]

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The aim of this project at the Ruhr-Universitt Bochum is

to develop a production process for the manufacture of
ring-shaped work pieces with a wear-resistant outer
layer by combination of radial-axial ring rolling with
powder technology (Figure 37).

proven for wheel hubs that are assembled together with

bearing parts by orbital forging [172] as shown in Figure
39. The hubs are compact and light while they are less
expensive and have fewer components compared to the
conventional assembly. Incremental bulk forming is in
particular qualified for this task as it requires high
precision [173].

Figure 37: Process-integrated powder coating [167].

The approach of compacting a metal powder coating
while ring rolling offers an alternative to the HIP-process
and at the same time overcome several of its restrictions,
especially regarding component size, processing time and
costs. To achieve this aim, the sequential production
steps of compacting, forming and heat treatment are
combined and integrated into the ring rolling process
[167].
Integrated use of various physical mechanisms:
Incremental bulk forming and heat treatment
Parts such as air nozzles, rim rings, pressure cans and
casings are more and more often manufactured of
titanium and nickel-base alloys. But cold metal forming of
these materials requires intermediate recrystallisation
steps leading to interruptions during the processes.
In the course of a research project a laser-assisted
spinning technique was developed in which the thermal
energy needed for shaping is provided by a laser beam
synchronized with the forming process. Thus materials
with challenging forming behaviour can be formed without
re-clamping [168, 169]. Rotary swaging of hollow shafts
as described in section 3 is an example of combined
incremental forming and partial heating. The material
properties have to be changed in a localized area of the
workpiece in order to make the process work.

Figure 38: Various operations in one location [171].

Machines to perform various operations in one location:

Incremental bulk forming and joining/turning/cutting
An integrated machine to perform various operations was
described in [170]. The paper describes combined axial
profile tube rolling (APRW/WE) and in particular the cold
rolling process which is useful to manufacture small
bearing rings (outer diameter up to 100 mm).
This manufacturing procedure allows performing shaping
and mechanical processing of all forms and surfaces as
well as final cutting in one clamping. Apart from the
advantages of cold ring rolling such as saving of
materials, increase in life time and surface quality, Ficker
et. al. described the process combination as better in
terms of material utilisation, reduction in investment cost
and reduced space requirements (Figure 38).
With the support of Pittler Tornos Werkzeugmachinen
GmbH Leipzig a prototype machine was developed and
presented at the 1997 EMO-fair.

Figure 39: Precision forming of wheel hubs by orbital

forging, source: Timken.
5 SUMMARY
Metal working with incremental techniques has been
practiced for thousands of years, but mass production
caused this craft to fall into oblivion in the 20th century.
However, there are indications of a renaissance in this
technology. Incremental forming features high flexibility of
the machinery by kinematical shaping processes, low
costs, reduced forces and the possibility of working with
less formable materials. Today incremental bulk metal
forming is applied in various industrial manufacturing
processes. Because of the high product quality that can
be achieved with this technology, it is used especially for
high-end applications in the automotive and aerospace
industry. Several new processes that have recently been
developed show current existing interest in these
techniques. But if incremental bulk forming should be

Economical usage of incremental bulk forming: Assembly

of components
Incremental forming operations can be utilized for the
assembly of individual parts. It is possible to integrate
several production steps in this way to realize a more
economic manufacturing of technical devices. This was

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used on a larger scale again in the near future, there are

some challenges to be mastered. Complex kinematics
used on a larger scale again in the near future, there are
some challenges to be mastered. Complex kinematics
demand new machinery and drive concepts as well as
fast and reliable controls. Existing limitations of the
processes should be eliminated by an advanced design.
Simulation methods that are used for this task have to be
improved to allow efficient modeling and calculation of
incremental processes. This is also true for the
implementation of advanced material and tribological
laws.
As shown in this paper the production of complex parts by
incremental bulk metal forming is advantageous in many
cases. With the possibility of achieving net-shape quality,
this approach features technological and economically
interesting alternatives to other manufacturing processes
like drop forging or machining for example. To tap the full
potential, the traditional knowledge of the craftsmen has
to be converted into new processes and equipment that
will be designed for future requirements.
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