Flattening of sheet metal by laser

forming

Takashi Ueda, Eisuke Sentoku, Yoshihiro

Wakinmura, Akira Hosokawa

School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering,

Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

Presented by,
K. Ramesh Kumar (06M640)
 Abstract
 Laser forming is a thermal process for deformation of sheet
metal by thermal stress.
 This technique is applied to flatten a protruded distortion on
the sheet metal and the results investigated
experimentally.
 The protrusion of some height is intentionally produced by
pressing a steel ball on a flat sheet metal.
 The laser beam was irradiated at the area of distortion, and
as a result, the protrusion disappeared and an almost flat
sheet metal could be obtained

 Introduction
 Laser forming is a thermal process for the deformation of
sheet metal by thermal stress produced by heating with a
laser beam.
 Sheet metal can be flattened without applying any external
forces.
 The process controlled easily by altering the irradiation of
the laser beam.
 The protruded distortion of some height is produced
intentionally by pressing a steel ball on the flat sheet
metal.
 CO2 laser is used and its scanning path is decided based on
the distribution of plastic strain calculated by FEM.
 Protruded distortion
Flat sheet metal is set to the rubber sheet which is fixed on

the table of a press machine.
 The size of workpiece
 is 50mm square.
 Steel ball of 50mm diameter
 is pressed at the center
 of it with a constant load.
 The height of the protrusion
 is controlled by the load
 which added to the steel ball.

 Protruded distortion
 The height is measured by a laser displacement gauge.
 The height of the protrusion is approximately 0.2mm.
 The direction of Z-axis is denoted
 as the height of the
 protrusion, while X- and
 Y-axis are denoted as
 Plane of the sheet metal.

 Protruded distortion



Protruded distortion
 FEM analysis
 Finite Element method analysis is used for the
determination of scanning path.
 Finite element meshes made on the work area with 300
elements and 482 nodes.
 The forced displacement is given at the center in the
direction of Z-axis and the surroundings of the workpiece
are fixed.
 The displacement and the plastic strain are checked at the
protruded area.

FEM analysis
 FEM analysis
The displacement and the plastic strain are found to

maximum at the centre.
 The laser should scanned along the path which will produce
maximum compressive plastic deformation at the centre
of distortion.
 A 4 way scanning path is selected.
 Order of scanning 1,2,3,4.
 The length of scanning path is
 5mm due to the concentration of
 plastic strain at a circular cross

 section of 5mm radius.


Experimental procedure and
equipments
 Experimental conditions



Laser power (Q) W 100
 Beam dia (D) mm 1

Feed rate (V) mm/s 5


 Material Carbon steel : ASTM A36




Thickness mm 0.6



Experimental setup
 Mechanism of laser flattening
 The height of protrusion
 decreases after

 each path of
 irradiation.
 The protrusion is
 removed completely
 after 4 paths
 Fundamental mechanism
 In the laser forming of a sheet metal, three kinds of
deforming mechanisms have been considered;
temperature gradient me- chanism (TGM), buckling
mechanism (BM) and upsetting me- chanism (UM).
 Area of protrusion when heated by irradiation of laser
expands and compressive stress is produced, which
causes plastic deformation of the protruded area.
 On removing the laser irradiation, the workpiece starts to
shrink and as a results tensile stress is produced due to
the height of the protrusion decreases.
 Flat sheet metal obtained finally.
Mechanism of laser flattening
 Influence of experimental
conditions
 Influence of height of protrusion on flattening
 As the height of
 Protrusion increases the
 number of scanning

 path increases for the

 same power of the laser.


 Influence of experimental
conditions
 Influence of laser power on flattening
 For 0.2mm protrusion if the laser power is reduced to 80W
then the number of scanning path required to complete
the flattening of sheet metal increases to 8.
 Larger the power lower is the number of scanning paths.
 Ideally low power, large number of scanning paths is used in
laser forming thermal damage in the work surface.

 Influence of experimental
conditions
 Thermal damage on work surface
 Thermal damage is produced on the steel surface after
irradiation of 100W laser beam in the air atmosphere due
to formation of oxide film on the steel surface.
 N2 gas was used to protect the work surface from being
oxidized.
 Small amount of N2 is made to flow through the point of
irradiation.

 Influence of experimental
conditions
Flattening of stainless steel sheet
 The deformation of the work material depends on the
thermal properties of the material.
Comparison between carbon steel and stainless steel


 Influence of experimental
conditions
 Flattening of stainless steel sheet
 For Stainless steel sheet AISI 304 the thermal diffusivity is
about one third of the carbon steel.
 Experimental conditions remain the same.

 Laser power is 200W and the beam diameter at the work

surface is 2mm.(2 times of carbon steel)
 Energy density (power per unit area) required in stainless
steel is half of that in carbon steel. So it is more effective
and flatness obtained after 4 scanning path is better than
carbon steel.

 Conclusion

 The laser forming is applied to flatten the protruded
distortion on the sheet metal. The protrusion is intentionally
produced on the sheet metal by pressing a steel ball to the
surface of carbon steel and stainless steel. The mechanism
of flattening and the technique of laser scanning to make the
flat surface effectively are investigated experimentally.


 Thank you