Abstract
In recent years, products manufactured from minute tube are widely used in electrical and medical field. Conventionally, the press forming of tube or sheet metal is used to make these products. The press forming is suitable for quantity production. However, it can only form limited shape, and its forming limit is low especially in that case of minute products. On the other side, rotary incremental forming with a cylindrical bar tool can make various shapes, and it is possible to improve forming limit because contact area between tool and tube is narrower than previous method. In this study, new forming equipment was developed to forming minute tapered tube with rotary incremental forming at first. Then, experiments with 2mm diameter tube were carried out for the purpose of establishment of basic forming technology required for more minute tube. In these experiments, it was confirmed that the possibility of forming minute tube with rotary incremental forming and that the effect of new tools. Furthermore, effect of each forming parameter on shape and forming rate was examined by experimental trial.
