DIE AND MOLD-LESS FORMING OF SHEET MATERIALS-CURVED SURFACE FORMING BY LASER IRRADIATION

Abstract

Laser forming is expected to be able to form a desired shape out of sheet metal or sheet plastic without the use of a die or mold. Laser forming plastically deforms the material by generating local heat stresses, and enables low cost rapid prototype or small lot production, since it eliminates the need for dies and molds. Although there are many studies on laser forming, there are relatively few studies on forming curved surfaces. The objective of this paper is to develop a method for forming curved surfaces out of sheet material utilizing laser irradiation. To achieve this objective, a method to determine the scanning paths and the scanning condition for making curved surfaces by laser irradiation is proposed. The scanning paths are determined as the maximum and minimum curvature lines, and the scanning condition, which is a function of the scanning speed, is derived from basic experiment data. Since the maximum and minimum curvature lines are orthogonal, they do not influence each other during forming.