Effect of Sheet Thickness on Forming Precision in Single Laser Shock Forming with Mold

Abstract

Laser shock forming (LSF) is one of the sheet metal dynamic forming techniques that employ laser-induced shock waves to form sheet metal into complex three-dimensional parts rapidly. This work investigates the effect of sheet thickness on the forming precision in laser shock forming with mold. ABAQUS/Explicit analysis software is adopted to study the effect of sheet metal thickness on forming accuracy. The corresponding forming experiments with sheet thickness arranged from 0.1mm to 0.4 mm are conducted to validate those numerical values. The numerical and experimental results indicate that the sheet thickness plays an important role in the precision of the formed parts, with the increase of sheet thickness, the forming precision is decreased.