Scanning path planning for laser bending of straight tube into curve tube

• A bending method is presented based on geometric curvature for curve subsection division.
• It is taking the extreme point as the initial position of the path planning for every subsection.
• The 3D scanning path was planned by combining the data in the two-dimension planes.

A bending method is presented based on geometric curvatures along the tube curves in which a scanning path planning for laser bending of a straight tube into a curve tube in a two- and three-dimension space. In two-dimensional (plane) bending, there are several segments divided on the curve tube according to extreme point and inflection point of the expected shape of the tube. It is taking the extreme point as the initial place of the path planning, using different scanning spaces for every subsection in order to identify the scanning paths. In three-dimensional bending, a projection decomposition method is used, where the three-dimension is decomposed into two two-dimension planes, and respective scanning path planning and process parameters are thus acquired. Then, the three-dimension scanning path plane was obtained by combining the data in the two-dimension planes. Finally, an experimental verification is carried out to bend straight tubes into a two-dimension sinusoidal and a three-dimension helical tube/coil-shaped. The results show that the scanning path planning proposed in this paper is effective and feasible.