Surface characteristic of stainless steel sheet after pulsed laser forming

Laser forming is a non-contact and die-less forming technique of producing bending, spatial forming, modifying and adjusting the curvature of the metallic sheet by using the controlled laser beam energy. One of the problems in laser forming is controlling the characteristic of laser scanned surface. The aim of the investigation is to explore the relation between the surface behaviors of heat affected zone (HAZ) scanned by pulse laser and the pulse parameters of the laser. This paper illustrated the fundamental theory of pulsed laser affected material, and pays attention to the microstructure, micro-hardness and the anticorrosion in the HAZ generated by the laser scanning. Metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), micro-hardness testing system are used to examine the surface characteristics. The work presented in this paper is beneficial to understand the mechanism of pulse laser affect to materials and improve controlling the surface behaviors scanned by pulsed laser.