3D laser-forming strategies for sheet metal by geometrical information

Forming sheet metal by laser-induced thermal stress (laser forming) is considered to offer great potential for rapid prototyping and flexible manufacturing. Accordingly, many studies have been carried out in different areas of laser forming. However, in order to apply the laser-forming process to real 3D products, a method that encompasses the whole process planning is required, including the laser irradiation patterns, laser power, and travel speed, when the target shape is given. In this work, a new method for 3D laser forming of sheet metal is proposed. This method uses geometrical information rather than a complicated stress–strain analysis. Using this new method the total calculation time is reduced considerably while affording strong potential for enhanced accuracy. Two different target shapes were formed by laser irradiation with the proposed procedure to validate the algorithm.     

Feedback control for 2D free curve laser forming

Forming sheet metal by laser-induced thermal stress (laser forming) is considered to have a great potential for rapid prototyping and other flexible manufacturing. However, the previous researches have mainly focused on analyzing the phenomena of the forming process. In 2D free curve laser forming, a feedback control scheme for each single bending angle was suggested in this study by incorporating a statistical method and the effect of the remaining errors was discussed. Methods of compensating for the remaining errors were proposed and analyzed by computer simulations. Experiments verified the applicability of the proposed methods.     

激光片光三维传感中降低散斑影响的新方法

提出一种激光片光三维传感中降低散斑影响的新方法,片光面内扫描合成孔径法。通过向被测物体表面投射面内扫描的片状激光束,产生空间变化的动态散斑光场,这样的光场在成像透镜光瞳平面上的移动,其时间平均效果等效于利用了一个大的“合成孔径”,降低了散斑的影响,明显地提高了测量精度。文中给出了合成孔径的理论分析和三维面形测量的实验结果。     

Effect of laser energy on the deformation behavior in microscale laser bulge forming

Microscale laser bulge forming is a high strain rate microforming method using high-amplitude shock wave pressure induced by pulsed laser irradiation. The process can serve as a rapidly established and high precision technique to impress microfeatures on thin sheet metals and holds promise of manufacturing complex miniaturized devices. The present paper investigated the forming process using both numerical and experimental methods. The effect of laser energy on microformability of pure copper was discussed in detail. A 3D measuring laser microscope was adopted to measure deformed regions under different laser energy levels. The deformation measurements showed that the experimental and numerical results were in good agreement. With the verified simulation model, the residual stress distribution at different laser energy was predicted and analyzed. The springback was found as a key factor to determine the distribution and magnitude of the compressive residual stress. In addition, the absorbent coating and the surface morphology of the formed samples were observed through the scanning electron microscope. The observation confirmed that the shock forming process was non-thermal attributed to the protection of the absorbent coating.     

Statistical analysis of parameter effects on bending angle in laser forming process by pulsed Nd:YAG laser

In recent years, laser application has been introduced for bending and forming as new processes in manufacturing. The capability of laser bending demands more studies to recognize parameters influencing bending angle of sheet metals. In this study the effects of parameters such as material, laser power, beam diameter, scan velocity, sheet thickness, pass number and pulse duration on bending angle were studied by FEM initially and then followed by experiments. Furthermore, the Taguchi experimental design method was employed to pin point parameters, which significantly affect the bending process of laser bending of St12 and 304 alloy steels, which have a wide range of applications in products manufacturing. A regression analysis was conducted and a closed form equation was derived. The closed form equation can be used in industry to determine which process parameters (factors) enhance the bending angle in laser bending process.     

激光片光三维传感的直接映射方法

提出了一种新的全场高度映射方法，利用激光片光产生的莫尔条纹的性质，拟合出两个映射曲面。通过这两个曲面方程，可同时直接得出ＣＣＤ探测器表面任意一点在实际世界坐标系中对应的高度和一维横向坐标。此方法具有极大的实用价值。     

Short pulse laser microforming of thin metal sheets for MEMS manufacturing

Continuous and long-pulse lasers have been used for the forming of metal sheets for macroscopic mechanical applications. However, for the manufacturing of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), the applicability of such type of lasers is limited by the long-relaxation-time of the thermal fields responsible for the forming phenomena. As a consequence of such slow relaxation, the final sheet deformation state is attained only after a certain time, what makes the generated internal residual stress fields more dependent on ambient conditions and might make difficult the subsequent assembly process for MEMS manufacturing from the point of view of residual stresses due to adjustment.The use of ns laser pulses provides a suitable parameter matching for the laser forming of an important range of sheet components used in MEMS that, preserving the short interaction time scale required for the predominantly mechanic (shock) induction of deformation residual stresses, allows for the successful processing of components in a medium range of miniaturization but particularly important according to its frequent use in such systems.In the present paper, a discussion is presented on the specific features of laser interaction in the timescale and intensity range needed for thin sheet microforming with ns-pulse lasers along with relevant modelling and experimental results and a primary delimitation of the parametric space of the considered class of lasers for the referred processes.     

利用激光三角测距法提高三维面型检测精度的方法

本文首先介绍了根据激光三角测距原理并采用片光照明、面阵ＣＣＤ接收的三维面形检测原理，其优点在于物面相对于测量头仅需一个方向移动即可完成二维扫描，使测量系统结构简单、便于控制。其次分析了影响其测量精度的几个主要因素，即散斑噪声、接收器件本身的分辨率、投影片光束的宽度与稳定性。散斑噪声造成了投影光斑的抖动，ＣＣＤ的分辨率限制了测量系统的分辨率，而片光束的质量影响着ＣＣＤ光敏面上像斑的准确定位。针对其各自的特点给出了相应的解决途径。     

Three-dimensional printing of conducting polymer microstructures into transparent polymer sheet: Relationship between process resolution and illumination conditions

Three-dimensional (3D) polypyrrole microstructures were successfully obtained in a transparent polymer sheet by 3D scanning of the laser focal point. The lateral process resolution of the microstructures was studied under different photofabrication conditions such as the repetition rate of the femtosecond pulse laser and the waiting time of the laser focal point scanning. As a result, a very small line width of the polypyrrole deposition of less than 500 nm was realized with good reproducibility.     

Geometry and physics of wrinkling

The wrinkling of thin elastic sheets occurs over a range of length scales, from the fine scale patterns in substrates on which cells crawl to the coarse wrinkles seen in clothes. Motivated by the wrinkling of a stretched elastic sheet, we deduce a general theory of wrinkling, valid far from the onset of the instability, using elementary geometry and the physics of bending and stretching. Our main result is a set of simple scaling laws; the wavelength of the wrinkles lambda approximately K(-1/4), where K is the stiffness due to an "elastic substrate" effect with a multitude of origins, and the amplitude of the wrinkle A approximately lambda. These could form the basis of a highly sensitive quantitative wrinkling assay for the mechanical characterization of thin solid membranes.     

Glassy conformations in wrinkled membranes

Partially polymerized membranes display a striking mechanical transition at low temperature known as the wrinkling transition. Fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy as well as profile measurements using an atomic force microscope revealed the existence of three degrees of wrinkling depending on the degree of the membrane polymerization. At low polymerization the membrane undergoes a cascade of wrinkling to form a folded phase with a characteristic exponent eta equal to 3, at intermediate polymerization, the membrane is in an intermediate-wrinkled phase (similar to the crumpling of an elastic sheet) with eta approximately 2.5, while at high polymerization the membrane undergoes an abrupt "compaction" to the wrinkled-rough phase with eta approximately 2.     

Regularity analysis of wrinkles under the action of capillary force in an annular thin film

The wrinkling law of annular sheet which is induced by capillary force with inner liquid film is analyzed in this paper. The results show that the inner liquid film can wrinkle the annular sheet when the surface tension of the liquid film reaches a critical value, and the critical value can be dramatically altered by changing the geometry and properties of the annular sheet. The results obtained in this article may hold potential applications in generating three-dimensional structures through capillary effects.     

Manufacturing of fine-structured 3D porous filter elements by selective laser melting

Selective laser melting (SLM) allows manufacturing porous 3D parts with customized near-net shape and internal geometry designed at the stage of their computer modeling. The relations between laser operational parameters, computer design of the manufacturing object, composition and microstructure of the obtained fine porous structures are discussed. A series of experiments are carried out on PHENIX PM-100 machine to analyze the influence of the manufacturing strategy on anisotropy and regularity of the internal structure of samples from stainless steel, nickel alloys and metal-polymer powders. The issues of accurate reproduction of the parts geometry, strategy of manufacturing thin-walled 3D filters and filters with customized pattern of the micron-sized channels are addressed. Effect of the porous structure on the material filtering performance is analyzed in order to optimize and diversify design of the porous materials for a given application and to improve their operational behavior.     

Hybrid femtosecond laser microfabrication to achieve true 3D glass/polymer composite biochips with multiscale features and high performance: the concept of ship‐in‐a‐bottle biochip

True three‐dimensionally (3D) integrated biochips are crucial for realizing high performance biochemical analysis and cell engineering, which remain ultimate challenges. In this paper, a new method termed hybrid femtosecond laser microfabrication which consists of successive subtractive (femtosecond laser‐assisted wet etching of glass) and additive (two‐photon polymerization of polymer) 3D microprocessing was proposed for realizing 3D “ship‐in‐a‐bottle” microchip. Such novel microchips were fabricated by integrating various 3D polymer micro/nanostructures into flexible 3D glass microfluidic channels. The high quality of microchips was ensured by quantitatively investigating the experimental processes containing “line‐to‐line” scanning mode, improved annealing temperature (645°C), increased prebaking time (18 h for 1mm‐length channel), optimal laser power (1.9 times larger than that on the surface) and longer developing time (6 times larger). The ship‐in‐a‐bottle biochips show high capabilities to provide simultaneous filtering and mixing with 87% efficiency in a shorter distance and on‐chip synthesis of ZnO microflower particles.     

Calculation of laser-induced temperature field on moving thin metal foils in consideration of Stefan problem

A temperature field on a moving thin sheet heated by a high-quality laser beam (TEM₀₀) is calculated. Effects of melting and solidification of sheet material is taken into account. Convective and radiation cooling is included into a mathematical model. Nonlinear effects connected with temperature dependencies of material properties are considered. An explicit finite-difference numerical method was used to calculate the non-steady-state 2D and 3D Stefan problems. A surface, on which the melting occur, is replaced by a zone of finite thickness. All physical properties in this zone are smoothed and considered as continuous values. Evaporation of liquid metal begins when temperature reaches some critical value. This effect is also included in the developed model. As a result, the geometry of the melting zone can be derived and is compared with a cross section of real laser welding seem.     

Floating carpets and the delamination of elastic sheets

We investigate the deformation of a thin elastic sheet floating on a liquid surface and subject to a uniaxial compression. We show that at a critical compression the sheet delaminates from the liquid over a finite region forming a delamination "blister." This blistering regime adds to the wrinkling and localized folding regimes that have been studied previously. The transition from wrinkled to blistered states occurs when delamination becomes energetically favorable compared with wrinkling. We determine the initial blister size and the evolution of blister size with continuing compression before verifying our theoretical results with experiments at a macroscopic scale.     

Modelling drying pathways of an evaporating soft matter droplet

Micro-droplets of soft matter solutions have different morphologies upon drying, and can become wrinkled, buckled or cavitated particles. We investigate the morphology evolution of a drying soft matter droplet in this work: at the early stage of drying, wrinkling or cavitation instability can occur in the droplet, depending on the comparison between the critical wrinkling and cavitation pressure; at a later stage of drying, no wrinkles will appear if cavitation happens first, while cavitation can still occur if wrinkling happens first. A three-dimensional phase diagram in the space of elastic length, gel layer thickness and weight loss is provided to illustrate the drying pathways of a soft matter droplet. This diagram can help guide future fabrications of micro-particles with desired morphologies.     

Stability and wrinkling of defective graphene sheets under shear deformation

The molecular dynamic simulation is performed to study the wrinkling behavior of a graphene sheet with a hole subjected to a shear loading at different temperatures. Wrinkling is inevitable under pure shear loading. Four different hole diameters of 0, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 nm are chosen in this simulation. The results show that the number of ridges increases with an increase of the width of the graphene sheet. The shear stress induced in the defective graphene sheet increases with increasing temperature. In addition, the shear modulus of the defective graphene sheet also increases with an increase of temperature.     

Laser stripe extraction in additive manufacturing based on spatiotemporal noise regularization

Optical Review - The optical three-dimensional (3D) measurement technique based on the laser stripe has become increasingly important in additive manufacturing, which is necessary to extract the...