Development and Analysis of Laser-assisted Bending with Moving Pre-displacement Load
R. Kant, H. Gurung, U. Sarma and S.N. Joshi
A novel and an efficient technique is developed in this work to obtain a large bend angle with a single laser scan. The proposed technique consists of laser-assisted bending with moving pre-displacement. A thermomechanical model is developed for laser-assisted bending with moving pre-displacement using the finite element method (FEM). The numerical model is validated with the developed experimental results and is found to be in good agreement with the experimental bend angle. The validated model is used to analyse the effect of pre-displacement on temperature distribution, stress-strain distribution, bend angle, edge effect and springback. Laser-assisted bending is compared with the laser bending process without external mechanical load. Results showed that the bend angle, edge effect and springback are significantly affected by the applied predisplacement.
Keywords: CO2 laser, magnesium M1A, laser-assisted bending, springback effect, edge effect, bend angle, moving pre-displacement, thermo-mechanical analysis, finite element method (FEM)