Robotic Metal Spinning

—Forming Non-axisymmetric Products Using Force Control—

Abstract

Metal spinning is a plastic forming process that forms a metal sheet by forcing the metal onto a rotating mandrel using a roller tool. Products formed by metal spinning have been inherently limited to round shapes. In this paper, we propose metal spinning of non-axisymmetric products by applying hybrid position/force control. The pushing force of the roller is regulated so that the roller can track the changing radius of the mandrel. Our forming experiment demonstrates that a thin aluminum sheet can be formed into a non-axisymmetric shape.