Asymmetric forming of aluminum sheets by synchronous spinning

Asymmetric conventional metal spinning was performed in this study to break through the limitation of ordinary axisymmetric spinning. A synchronous spinning machine was developed for this purpose; in this case, the mandrel motion, mandrel feed, and roller feed were synchronized by pulse control. Trial spinning experiments were carried out on a 1-mm-thick aluminum sheet to obtain an asymmetric truncated-elliptical-cone-shaped product. The roller path was traced using a control software by taking into account the errors caused by the step pulse control. Asymmetric sheet metal forming was successfully carried out by using the developed synchronous spinning method. The characteristics of asymmetric spinning were discussed by comparing the shape of the product, strain distributions, and force components with those obtained in the case of axisymmetric spinning.