Laser micro bending process of Ti6Al4V square bar are carried out using a 3D thermo-mechanical finite element analytical model (FEM). The transient temperature fields, displacement fields, stress fields and strain fields are obtained and analyzed. The results show that the bending angel during laser micro bending process is in good agreement with experimental measurements. The effects of proces...

In recent decades, one of the challenges in sheet metal forming was production of two-step bending surfaces without mechanical tools and external force or by a combination of heat source and mechanical tools. Forming with a heat source such as laser beam has the potential for forming arbitrary 3D shapes such as two-step bending surfaces. In this paper a novel method for laser forming of complic...

New experimental results show that laser bending can be extended to generate a bending angle not only towards but also away from the laser beam, giving more flexibility to the process. In order to explain this buckling instability, a series of experiments have been carried out with real-time measurement of the bending angle for different materials, thicknesses, scanning speeds, laser beam diame...

Laser forming is a thermal forming process which uses laser beam irradiation to produce the desired final forms. In this article, the effect of temperature gradient across  Al 6061-T6 aluminum sheets on bending angle is studied. Input parameters including laser power, scan velocity, beam diameter, and sheet thickness are the effective process parameters which influence the temperature gradient....

The purpose of this work is to use 3D finite element analyses to compute bending of a hard disk suspension using a laser. The pitch and roll of the suspension can be precisely adjusted by producing a controlled amount of residual strain using the laser as a heat source. In the computational model, an uncoupled thermo-mechanical analysis is applied to calculate the laser induced thermal loading ...

During the plastic deformation of brittle materials as magnesium, titanium or high strength steels, for instance in bending of sheet metals, the local strain can exceed the ductility – the strain at rupture – and thus cracks appear that eventually lead to rupture. Hot working would be beneficial since a temperature of a few hundred centigrades leads to an increase of the ductility by more than ...

Laser forming has not been widely used due to limited understanding of its mechanism and immaturity of processing technology. In the study of single axis laser bending of plates, edge effects affect accuracy of the bending. Experimental and numerical studies are carried out to study the mechanism of the edge effects. Temperature dependency of material properties and strain-rate dependency of yi...

Laser forming of sheet metal offers the advantages of requiring no hard tooling and thus reduced cost and increased flexibility. It also enables forming of some materials and shapes that are not possible now. In single-axis laser bending of plates, the bending edge is found to be somewhat curved and the bending angle varies along the laser-scanning path. These phenomena are termed edge effects,...

This paper presents a numerical investigation and statistical analysis of laser bending of Titanium sheets. The aim of the present simulation is to identify the response through response surface methodology related to bending angle and characterize the effects of input parameters: laser power, spot diameter, scanning speed and plate thickness. The numerical simulations are carried out based on ...

Attenuation characteristics of hollow, flexible, metal and metal/dielectric coated polycarbonate waveguides were investigated using an optically pumped far infrared (FIR) laser at 215 µm. The bending loss of silver coated polycarbonate waveguides were measured as a function of various bending angles, bending radii, and bore diameters. Minimal propagation losses of 1.77, 0.96 dB/m were achieved ...