Incremental sheet forming is a sheet forming technique in which a metal sheet is formed into a finished part by a series of small incremental deformations.
The metal sheet is formed with a round-tipped tool, usually between 5 and 20 mm in diameter. The tool, which can be attached to a CNC machine, robotic arm or similar device, plunges approximately 1mm into the metal sheet and follows the contour of the desired part. It then plunges in and deforms the next contour of the part in the sheet, and so on until the whole part is formed. The ISF can be divided into variants depending on the number of contact points between the tool, metal sheet and die (if any).
