Development of irradiation strategies for 3D-laser forming

A new field of application for the process of laser forming is the controlled generation of complex curved sheet metal parts for rapid-prototyping and small series productions. This paper presents basic investigations on the differences in the forming behaviour of sheet-metal parts using linear and curved irradiations, indicating a strong influence of the material adjacent to the irradiated zone on the forming result in the case of curved irradiation paths. The reasons for this behaviour are analysed and discussed. Several irradiation strategies that could be derived from basic experiments were investigated for the case of mild steel spherical dome samples. Ln addition, first results of finite element calculations on laser forming along curved irradiation paths are presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.