The effects of cut-out on stress distribution and deformations in laser thermal adjustment

Laser forming is a noncontact forming method that has received considerable attention in recent years. Compared to mechanical bending, no hard tooling, dies, or external force is used. Within laser forming, laser thermal adjustment is an important industrial activity with applications in critical microsystems such as electrical switches, computer devices, etc. This process utilizes the thermal stresses generated during laser heating to achieve the desired deformations. The parameters varied to control the process are usually laser power, beam diameter, heating time, and the number of pulses. The thermal stresses generated during laser heating are strongly dependent upon sample geometry. This paper investigates the effects for cut-out and its geometries on laser thermal adjustment. Finite element modeling has been used for the study of the process with some results also validated by experiments.

► The stress development is numerically analyzed for samples with different cut-outs. ► The temperature and deformations are experimentally carried out. ► The cut-out and its shape provide a useful tool to optimize the adjustment process.