Formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy in warm incremental forming process

A number of scientists are currently involved in Incremental Forming investigation, in order to better understand the process and to extend its applicability to industrial practice. If flexibility is probably the main advantage deriving from Incremental Forming use, today a new point of view is given by the possibility to use the process instead of a sequence of operations, allowing also a better sustainability. Formability enhancing is one of the keyfactors of this success and for this reason it is widely investigated, also on lightweight materials, for which the use of a preliminary heating is required. In the paper the formability of Magnesium AZ31 is investigated in warm Incremental Forming, focusing the attention on the tools currently utilised for describing material formability. It is shown that Forming Limit Curves fail in this goal while a study of fracture, exploiting results of conventional tensile tests, supplies more appreciable results.