Study of edge effect and multi-curvature in laser bending of AISI 304 stainless steel

Laser bending is a weakly coupled thermo-mechanical process, where thermal energy is utilized to carry out the bending process. This offers an excellent tool in automotive, shipbuilding and aerospace applications. This study deals with the edge effect in laser bending of AISI 304 stainless steel, which was carried out using a 10 kW continuous wave CO2 laser. The study of the variations in bending angle, along the longitudinal direction of laser scanning path (edge effect) through physical optimization, has clearly demonstrated that the edge effect depends on multiple process parameters. It has also been found that the laser bending sometime can render a multi-curvature on a single laser scan path. The so called multi-curvature phenomenon has been found to be very much dependent on the laser scanning speed and the extent of this effect can be minimized with the use of higher number of passes.