Recent Advances in the Laser Forming Process: A Review

Laser forming is an emerging manufacturing process capable of producing either uncomplicated and complicated shapes by employing a concentrated heating source. The heat source movement creates local softening, and a plastic strain will be induced during the rise of temperature and the subsequent cooling. This contactless forming process may be used for the simple bending of sheets and tubes or fabrication of doubly-curved parts. Different studies have been carried out over recent years to understand the mechanism of forming and predicting the bending angle. The analysis of process parameters and search for optimized manufacturing conditions are among the most discussed topics. This review describes the main recent findings in the laser forming of single and multilayer sheets, composite and fiber-metal laminate plates, force assisted laser bending, tube bending by laser beam, the optimization technique implemented for process parameters selection and control, doubly-curved parts, and the analytical solutions in laser bending. The main focus is set to the researches published since 2015.

Temperature Gradient-Based Laser Bending of Full Plates and Plates With Cutout

The laser bending process, also called the laser forming process, consists of irradiating the surface of a sheet or a plate by means of a moving laser beam with a predefined scanning strategy to generate the desired shape through thermally induced residual stress. This chapter presents the mechanisms of a laser bending process and the technological aspects concerning laser v-bending of rectangular AISI 304 plates for full plates and plates with a central cutout at its middle to highlight the process fundamentals and how processing affects the final bending angle of the workpieces. Laser bending involving plates with a cutout will have numerous applications for car bodies, such as front and rear panels where bending is required to be performed on panels with cutout geometries. To investigate the effects of shape and size of the cutout on temperature distribution, stress distribution, and final bending angle, different shapes such as circular, ellipse, rectangular, and square, as well as different dimensions of cutouts have been chosen.