Experimental and numerical analysis of bending angle variation and longitudinal distortion in laser forming process

Laser forming is a non-traditional process, in which the laser beam is used as a forming tool. Two major defects occur during this process: longitudinal distortion along the laser path and bending angle variation along the free edge of the sheet. These two phenomena were studied by using numerical and experimental approaches. Laser scanning speed was applied along the straight-line in two ways: a fixed scan speed pattern and a variable scan speed pattern. In order to record the experimental data, an accurate non-contact optical measuring method was used. Experimental and finite element results have shown that, in the fixed scan speed patterns, by increasing the speed, the longitudinal distortion and bending angle were reduced. In the variable speed patterns, the fluctuation of scan speed has no effect on the reduction of longitudinal distortion and bending angle. The numerical and experimental results were compared and good correlation was found between them