Today, the incremental forming process is widely used as a rapid prototyping method. One of the strategic polymer parts in the aviation industry is the canopy of various aircrafts. Polycarbonate sheets with suitable mechanical, thermal, chemical, and optical properties are used in the manufacturing of the latest integral canopies. Conventional processes are not cost-effective for low-volume production of polymer products, particularly for spare parts. In this paper, rapid prototyping of a geometry similar to integral canopies is investigated using the incremental forming process of transparent polycarbonate sheets. To this aim, the apparent transparency and the geometric accuracy of the final parts were considered as the main concerns. In single-point incremental forming experiments, the effect of tool rotational velocity on apparent transparency and the effect of toolpath strategy on geometric accuracy of the samples were investigated. Three toolpath strategies including raster, spiral from outside, and spiral from inside were applied. According to the FE results, applied toolpath strategies did not noticeably affect the thickness distribution for the critical section. Post-heating treatment was also used to release process-induced residual stresses and reduce the spring back. The use of a non-rotating tool as well as a mechanical–chemical surface polishing improved the final finishing and transparency of samples. In addition, by the employment of the raster strategy, higher geometric accuracy was achieved compared with the other two strategies. The forming of samples with appropriate apparent transparency and geometric accuracy promises to apply the rapid prototyping of aircrafts canopy using the incremental forming processes.

如今，增量成型工艺已被广泛用作快速成型方法。航空工业中的战略性聚合物零件之一是各种飞机的机盖。具有合适的机械，热，化学和光学性能的聚碳酸酯板用于制造最新的一体式顶篷。常规工艺对于小批量生产聚合物产品，特别是对于备件，并不划算。在本文中，使用透明聚碳酸酯片材的增量成型工艺研究了类似于整体顶篷的几何形状的快速原型。为了这个目的，最终部件的表面透明性和几何精度被认为是主要关注点。在单点渐进成形实验中，研究了刀具转速对表观透明度的影响以及刀具路径策略对样品几何精度的影响。应用了三种刀具路径策略，包括栅格，外部螺旋和内部螺旋。根据有限元分析结果，应用的刀具路径策略不会明显影响关键部分的厚度分布。加热后处理还用于释放过程引起的残余应力并减少回弹。使用非旋转工具以及机械化学表面抛光可以改善样品的最终精加工和透明度。此外，通过采用栅格策略，与其他两种策略相比，可以实现更高的几何精度。