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.     

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.     

Laser forming of a bowl shaped surface with a stationary laser beam

Despite a lot of research done in the field of laser forming, generation of a symmetric bowl shaped surface by this process is still a challenge mainly because only a portion of the sheet is momentarily deformed in this process, unlike conventional sheet metal forming like deep drawing where the entire blank undergoes forming simultaneously reducing asymmetry to a minimum. The motion of laser beam also makes the process asymmetric. To counter these limitations this work proposes a new approach for laser forming of a bowl shaped surface by irradiating the centre of a flat circular blank with a stationary laser beam. With high power lasers, power density sufficient for laser forming, can be availed at reasonably large spot sizes. This advantage is exploited in this technique. Effects of duration of laser irradiation and beam spot diameter on the amount of bending and asymmetry in the formed surface were investigated. Laser power was kept constant while varying irradiation time. While varying laser spot diameter laser power was chosen so as to keep the surface temperature nearly constant at just below melting. Experimental conditions promoted almost uniform heating through sheet thickness. The amount of bending increased with irradiation time and spot diameter. It was interesting to observe that blanks bent towards the laser beam for smaller laser beam diameters and the reverse happened for larger spot diameters (~10 times of the sheet thickness). Effect of spot diameter variation has been explained with the help of coupled thermal-structural finite element simulations.     

Flattening of sheet metal by laser forming

Laser forming is a thermal process for deformation of sheet metal by thermal stress. In this paper, the technique of laser forming is applied to flatten a protruded distortion on the sheet metal, and the mechanism of flattening is investigated experimentally. The protrusion of some height is intentionally produced by pressing a steel ball on a flat sheet metal. The laser beam was irradiated at the area of distortion, and as a result, the protrusion disappeared and an almost flat sheet metal could be obtained.     

Development of irradiation strategies for free curve laser forming

Although forming sheet metal by laser-induced thermal stresses (laser forming) has been extensively studied, the research has mainly focused on a single angle forming process. The task of free curve laser forming of sheet metal is to determine a set of process parameters such as laser scanning paths, laser power and scanning speed that will make a given shape. Two methods were used for generating the laser scanning paths and the bending angles of each path. Each method was analyzed by computer simulation and the two methods were compared. Experiments verified the applicability of the proposed methods.     

Characteristic of energy input for laser forming sheet metal

Laser forming is a process in which laser-induced thermal deformation is used to form sheet metal without a hard forming tool or external forces. The energy input of laser beam is the key factor for the temperature and stress distribution of sheet metal. The purpose of this work is to investigate the influence of energy input condition on heat input and deformation angle for two-dimension laser forming. Variations in heat input resulting from material deformation was calculated and discussed in this paper at first. Furthermore, in laser forming under the condition of constant laser energy input, the effects of energy input mode on deformation angle and temperature field were investigated.     

Deformation behavior of laser bending of circular sheet metal

The application of a thermal source in non-contact forming of sheet metal has long been used. However, the replacement of this thermal source with a laser beam promises much greater controllability of the process. This yields a process with strong potential for application in aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile, and manufacturing industries, as well as the rapid manufacturing of prototypes and adjustment of misaligned components. Forming is made possible through laser-induced non-uniform thermal stresses. In this letter, we use the geometrical transition from rectangular to circle-shaped specimen and ring-shaped specimen to observe the effect of geometry on deformation in laser forming. We conduct a series of experiments on a wide range of specimen geometries. The reasons for this behavior are also analyzed. Experimental results are compared with simulated values using the software ABAQUS. The utilization of line energy is found to be higher in the case of laser forming along linear irradiation than along curved ones. We also analyze the effect of strain hindrance. The findings of the study may be useful for the inverse problem, which involves acquiring the process parameters for a known target shape of a wide range of complex shape geometries.     

板料激光成型技术的实验研究

激光成型是一种利用激光作为热源的热应力无模成型新技术。介绍了板料激光成型技术的工艺过程及影响激光成型的主要因素 ,通过实验研究了激光能量因素、板料的材料性能及几何参数对板料弯曲角度的影响     

Experimental investigation on laser flattening of sheet metal

The purpose of this research is to establish the technique of laser flattening and to consider the fundamental mechanism. The thermal stress produced by heating with a laser beam is used to make a flat sheet from a sheet metal of protruded distortion. Three kinds of protrusions are chosen as the typical protruded distortion; point protrusion, line protrusion and face protrusion. For point protrusion, laser irradiation along the circular path is effective when the height of protrusion is large, and the laser irradiation along the radial path is effective when it is small. For line protrusion, laser beam is irradiated along the short straight path whose direction is normal to the centerline of the protrusion. For face protrusion, the height decreases from 1-0.1 mm by the laser irradiation along the circular path. The residual stress at the convex surface of a point protrusion on the sheet metal changes from a large compressive stress to a small tensile stress by the laser irradiation.     

Measurement of dynamic characteristics of metal sheet under laser shock

A new approach is developed to measure the dynamic characteristics of metal sheet under laser shock,including deformation velocity,strain,and strain rate.The detecting laser beam is partially shaded by the target deformation induced by the laser action.A photodiode transforms the received beam intensity real time into an electrical signal which could record the process of the target deformation.The functional relation between the electrical signal and the deformation of the metal sheet is derived.The deformation curve of a thin aluminum and the velocity curve of its deformation are also obtained during the exper-iment.The results indicate that the average velocity of the elastic deformation of the target can reach 2.999×10 3 m/s in the central area.This new method provides an approach in the study of the effect of strain rate on deformation.     

Micro scale laser shock forming of pure copper and titanium sheet with forming/blanking compound die

A new process fabricating micro parts of thin metal foils by laser shock waves with forming/blanking compound die is reported in this article, in which flexible rubber material was used as the soft punch to act on the thin metal sheet. Systematic studies were carried out experimentally on the process with different laser energies and materials. The formed parts were examined in terms of their morphology, surface roughness, forming depth and mechanical properties (including nanohardness, plasticity and elastic modulus) characterized by nanoindentation test. According to the results, the ablation states of confinement medium and the surface roughness of the different regions change with energies. Additionally, the proper energies are necessary to form complex parts and the forming process can be applied to manufacture parts with good surface quality. What׳s more, the nanoindentation test results showed that the nanohardness, plasticity and elastic modulus of material were increased after impact. The increase in nanohardness and plasticity can attribute to higher stiffness of the parts. The enhanced elastic modulus indicates an increased stiffness of the parts, providing an evidence for the reduced spring back of copper during laser shocking.     

Ultrahigh-strain-rate plastic deformation of a stainless-steel sheet with TiN coatings driven by laser shock waves

In this paper, a novel dynamic ultrahigh-strain-rate forming method driven by laser impact is reported. The technique is based on a mechanical, not thermal, effect. It is found that the ultrahigh-strain-rate is the most important feature for laser shock forming. Usually it is about 10⁷–10⁹ s^-1, two or more orders of magnitude higher than that of explosive forming, a method with the largest strain rate previously. Studies on the hardness and residual stress of the surfaces indicate that laser shock forming has some peculiarities other forming methods lack. It introduces strain hardening and compressive residual stresses on both surfaces of the metal sheet, resulting in an obvious improvement in fatigue and corrosion resistance. We also discover some non-linear plastic deformation characteristics in laser shock forming. PACS 42.62.Cf; 81.70.C; 62.20.-x; 81.40.Vw; 62.50.+p; 81.65.-b     

Dynamic laser prototyping for biomimetic nanofabrication

Micronanofabrication technologies developed so far pursue faithful conversion from digital models to matter structures. This is vital for microdevices in optics, mechanics, and electronics, where device shape and size matter. However, biotissues grow under rich environmental factor interactions, as demands novel manufacturing approaches for biomimetic and biological fabrication. Here, a concept of dynamic laser prototyping is reported, which is based on a new finding of a multilayered three‐dimensional (3D) wrinkling phenomenon. The 3D wrinkling started with formation of a photocrosslinked hydrogel sheet by femtosecond laser direct writing. It was followed by spontaneous self‐bending of the sheet, caused by a purposely designed sheet–substrate stress mismatch. The flower blooming process has been successfully mimicked, indicating broader usages of the technology in biotissue‐growth‐related manufacturing.     

神光III主机极向驱动靶丸表面辐照均匀性

极向驱动是在间接驱动构型的激光装置中,通过重瞄各束激光的位置,实现较均匀的靶丸表面激光辐照,以研究直接驱动惯性约束聚变的关键物理问题.介绍了神光III主机装置的激光排布和焦斑特点,以及激光束重瞄方法和靶丸表面激光辐照均匀性优化原则.给出了三阶和五阶超高斯近似下的激光焦斑强度分布,Φ540 μm靶丸在能量沉积满足cos²γ和cos γ假设时靶丸表面最均匀辐照的移束参数,以及二维辐射流体程序模拟最优移束时的内爆对称性结果.二维模拟结果表明,按cosγ假设移束的热斑更对称.分析了激光的束间功率不平衡、激光束重瞄精度和靶丸定位精度对靶丸表面辐照均匀性的影响.模拟结果表明,为了不显著降低靶丸表面辐照均匀性,需要将束间功率不平衡控制在5%以内,激光束重瞄精度和靶丸定位精度控制在7 μm以内.     

Grid-based photogrammetry system for large scale sheet metal strain measurement

This paper presents a new approach to fast strain measurement with high accuracy for large scale sheet metal based on the surface circular grid and digital close range photogrammetry. A multi-block measuring method of discretization is implemented to archive large scale measurement. The sheet metal is separated into several blocks for respective calculating and joined together by common reference points. A surface circular searching method is presented for fast and robust 3D grid generation. A flexible bundle adjustment method is proposed for large amount 3D grid nodes reconstruction, which employs the conception of sampling points and is proved to be efficient. Furthermore, a multi-stage grid registration method is introduced to improve the accuracy of strain field by correcting the true deformation gradient tensor. A novel system is developed and performances well in actual large scale sheet metal strain measurement. Two accuracy tests confirm that the system strain measurement error is less than 0.2%.     

3D displacement field measurement with correlation based on the micro-geometrical surface texture

Image correlation methods are widely used in experimental mechanics to obtain displacement field measurements. Currently, these methods are applied using digital images of the initial and deformed surfaces sprayed with black or white paint. Speckle patterns are then captured and the correlation is performed with a high degree of accuracy to an order of 0.01 pixels. In 3D, however, stereo-correlation leads to a lower degree of accuracy. Correlation techniques are based on the search for a sub-image (or pattern) displacement field. The work presented in this paper introduces a new correlation-based approach for 3D displacement field measurement that uses an additional 3D laser scanner and a CMM (Coordinate Measurement Machine). Unlike most existing methods that require the presence of markers on the observed object (such as black speckle, grids or random patterns), this approach relies solely on micro-geometrical surface textures such as waviness, roughness and aperiodic random defects. The latter are assumed to remain sufficiently small thus providing an adequate estimate of the particle displacement. The proposed approach can be used in a wide range of applications such as sheet metal forming with large strains. The method proceeds by first obtaining cloud points using the 3D laser scanner mounted on a CMM. These points are used to create 2D maps that are then correlated. In this respect, various criteria have been investigated for creating maps consisting of patterns, which facilitate the correlation procedure. Once the maps are created, the correlation between both configurations (initial and moved) is carried out using traditional methods developed for field measurements. Measurement validation was conducted using experiments in 2D and 3D with good results for rigid displacements in 2D, 3D and 2D rotations.     

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.     

Effect of different heating methods on deformation of metal plate under upsetting mechanism in laser forming

In a laser forming process, different forming mechanisms have different deformation behaviors. The aim of laser forming is to acquire plane strain under an upsetting mechanism, while a plate undergoes a small bending deformation. In some industrial applications, the bending strain should not occur. To achieve high-precision forming, the deformation behaviors of a metal plate when an upsetting mechanism plays a dominant role are studied in the paper. Several heating methods are proposed to reduce the plane strain difference along the thickness direction and little bending deformation resulting from a small temperature difference between the top and bottom surfaces of the plate. The results show that negligible bending deformation and a uniform plastic plane strain field can be obtained by simultaneously heating the top and bottom surfaces with the same process parameters. A conventional scanning method needs a larger spot diameter and slower scanning speed under the upsetting mechanism, but a smaller spot diameter and quicker scanning speed may be selected using the simultaneous heating method, which can greatly widen the potential scope of process parameters.     

Laser shock forming of aluminum sheet: Finite element analysis and experimental study

Laser shock forming (LSF) is characterized in non-contact load, high pressure and high strain ratio. This new forming process using laser-induced shock pressure can shape sheet metal without complicated forming equipments. The know-how of the forming process is essential to efficiently and accurately control the deformation of sheet metal. Experiment and numerical simulation are the important approaches for forming analysis. Taken the aluminum sheets with different thickness as the specimen, the finite element (FE) analysis for LSF was performed. In the paper, Q-switch Nd:YAG Laser with a maximum power density of 4.5 GW/cm² was used. The simulation results were in good agreement with the experiment. It showed that the formed aluminum sheets were in the form of concavo-convex. Finally, the transient and static deformations of thin sheet metal under specific operation conditions were also studied.     

A study of the effect of laser beam geometries on laser bending of sheet metal by buckling mechanism

Laser beam forming has emerged as a new and very promising technique to form sheet metal by thermal residual stresses. The objective of this work is to investigate numerically the effect of rectangular beam geometries, with different transverse width to length aspect ratio, on laser bending process of thin metal sheets, which is dominated by buckling mechanism. In this paper, a comprehensive thermal and structural finite element (FE) analysis is conducted to investigate the effect that these laser beam geometries have on the process and on the final product characteristics. To achieve this, temperature distributions, deformations, plastic strains, stresses, and residual stresses produced by different beam geometries are compared. The results suggest that beam geometries play an important role in the resulting temperature distributions on the workpiece. Longer beam dimensions in the scanning direction (in relation to its lateral dimension) produce higher temperatures due to longer beam–material interaction time. This affects the bending direction and the magnitude of the bending angles. Higher temperatures produce more plastic strains and hence higher deformation. This shows that the temperature-dependent yield stress plays a more dominant role in the deformation of the plate than the spread of the beam in the transverse direction. Also, longer beams have a tendency for the scanning line to curve away from its original position to form a concave shape. This is caused by buckling which develops tensile plastic strains along both ends of the scanning path. The buckling effect produces the opposite curve profile; convex along the tranverse direction and concave along the scanning path.