Deformation behaviors of laser forming of ring sheet metals

Laser forming is a highly flexible sheet metal forming technique. In laser forming along curved irradiation paths, the heated zone is bigger and the effects of the processing parameters on the deformation are complex. The deformation behaviors of laser forming of ring sheet metals have been investigated from the thermal-mechanics analysis by the finite element (FE) simulation based on the proposed finite element method model. The effects of ring central angle and scanning path on deformation of ring sheet metal were investigated. The results are as follows: (1) in comparison with the laser bending along linear path, the marked third point has two peak temperatures during the laser forming process along curved path; (2) the forming process fluctutes continuously and the sheet edge is warped because the rigid-ends effect due to the restriction of sheet; (3) when the ring central angle increases, the displacement difference of the marked three points decreases and then increases, and the warped curvature of sheet edge decreases; (4) when the laser beam diameter increases, the displacement difference of the marked three points decreases and the warped curvature increases.