Laser forming of metal sheets

• Main Author: Wong, Zi Hao
• Other Authors: Yeo Swee Hock
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60926
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This experiment is a study about laser forming, or more specifically laser bending of sheet metals. The materials used will be galvanised mild steel with a thickness of 0.5mm. Thermal gradient mechanism will be used when bending the specimens and data will be gathered to compare the relationship between bending angles and various other factors. An experiment is carried out and several parameters (laser power, scanning velocity & number of scans) were varied to observe the effect that they have on the bending angle. The twin layer model is used to evaluate the bending angle during laser forming. However, experiments have shown that it does not take into account the plastic deformation during the cooling and heating phrase. Model predictions were confirmed by comparing against experiment data and the observations of microstructures of the specimens are used to explain discrepancies between the predictions and experiment values.