Incremental forming is a new method of sheet metal forming that is widely used in industry. This technique does not need a die and by using just a simple tool and a computer numerical control machine, it is possible to produce different shapes with a desirable precision on a thin sheet. In this process, a simple tool fastened in a chuck of computer numerical control machine moves over the surface of a sheet, clamped around its periphery, and the final shape is obtained by gradual plastic deformation of sheet. Among important advantages of this method as compared with conventional forming methods are: much less production time and less costs mostly suitable for low volume production and rapid prototyping of parts. Meanwhile, application of lightweight components is another challenge in modern traortation engineering. Mass reduction is, in fact, necessary due to economic and ecological reasons as well as improvement of product properties. Lightweight materials are characterized by a high strength to density ratio. On the other hand, low formability is, usually, typical of this group of materials. Low formability of these alloys at room temperatures caused researchers to investigate on incremental forming method at warm and high temperatures. Warm conditions in incremental sheet forming require more equipment and add to the complexity of the process. However warm forming conditions are beneficial for forming lightweight alloys such as aluminum, magnesium and so on. Aluminum alloys exhibit increased formability at elevated temperatures. Obviously this process also has its own challenges, such as heating the blank, controlling the die temperature, lubrication, selection of the appropriate forming press, cycle time, and increased cost. Warm forming can be conducted under isothermal or non-isothermal conditions. In the first case, the aluminum blanks and all tooling components (die, blank holder, etc) are heated to the same forming temperature. In the second case, tool components may have different temperatures from the blank. In incremental sheet forming there are many parameters that have significant impacts on the quality of final product such as tool diameter, feed rate, step-down, work piece temperature, friction between tool and sheet and tool path etc. In this study a die and a heating system was designed and conducting experimental tests, effects of tool diameter, feed rate, step-down, work piece temperature and wall angle on achievable final depth and surface quality of the parts were studied. Also in this study effects of feed rate, tool diameter, step-down and work piece temperature were studied. Moreover, this process was simulated by the ABAQU software. Keywords: Warm incremental forming, Aluminum sheet 1050, simulation of FEM, forming depth, surface quality
