Development of Scan Strategies for Controlled 3D Laser Forming of Sheet Metal Components

Laser forming offers the industrial promise of controlled iterative shaping of metallic and non-metallic components. In order to fulfil this promise in a manufacturing environment the process must have a high degree of control, be repeatable and have a minimal impact on the material and mechanical properties of the part to be formed. A new approach for the development of scan strategies for controlled 3D laser forming of sheet metal components is presented in this paper based on a reverse analysis. A patched modular virtual press tool is employed in a commercial FE package to extract the required distribution of in-plane strain, bending strain and principal minimal strain to achieve a given shape from a starting condition. The laser processing conditions have then been extracted from the magnitude of strain and displacement of each patch, closed loop control iterative approach has then been used to ensure part accuracy.