Effects of process parameters on bending magnitude in laser forming and determine an equation to predict bending angle

Laser Forming (LF) process is one of the thermal forming processes; which uses laser beam irradiation as a forming factor. In this process، temperature gradient along the sheet thickness produces the final bending angle. So far، various investigations are carried out on laser forming of low carbon steel sheets. However، LF process can be utilised in other metallic and non-metallic sheets. High surface reflectivity and thermal conductivity of aluminium sheets، compared to steel sheets، make them more difficult and more complicated to be laser formed than that of steel sheets. In this Article، using LF process simulation with the finite element software، effects of several process parameters such as laser power، scan speed، laser beam diameter and sheet thickness on final bending angle are investigated. Numerical results are validated with the same parameter assigned experimental results. This comparison shows a very good accordance between simulation and experimental results. Also، an equation is derived to predict the final bending angle correspond to the variations of mentioned parameters. This is derived by the use of Design of Experiment (DOE) and full factorial approach.