Research on TA1 mesh low-melting-point alloy filling incremental forming process for cranial prosthesis

Abstract The single point incremental forming (SPIF) process is a flexible and progressive manufacturing technique in the monolithic molding domain of heterogeneous metal pressing panels, which can contribute to the monolithic molding of metal pressing panels with complex contour and applicable to the fabrication of a small amount of titanium mesh plates for cranial prosthesis. A sandwich construction of titanium mesh was proposed in this paper for the purpose of inhibiting the indentation on the product surface and the deformation extent of mesh opening, as well as the forming accuracy of titanium mesh. The method of finite element modelling was applied to analyze the influence rules of low-melting-point alloy/synergistic deformation mechanism of titanium mesh as well as low-melting-point alloy layer on titanium mesh incremental forming quality. At last, the horizontal arrangement of significance regarding process parameters on sandwich titanium mesh wall thickness and rebound ratio effects was confirmed.