Enhancing process competency by forced cooling in laser bending process
Ramsingh Yadav, Dhruva Kumar Goyal, Ravi Kant
Abstract
Laser bending utilizes laser-induced thermal distortion to bend the sheet metal. This process is advantageous for job and batch productions but not suitable for mass production due to small bend angle per scan. This study aims to increase the bend angle per scan by applying forced cooling at the surface opposite to the laser scan. A 3-D numerical model is developed for laser bending process to analyze the effect of forced cooling on bend angle and edge effect. Results show that the bend angle can be significantly increased by applying forced cooling on the surface opposite the laser scan. However, the application of forced cooling is found to be effective only at high line energy, but it affects adversely at low line energy. Results also show that the edge effect is increased by the application of forced cooling at high line energy; however, it is marginally affected at low line energy.