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Abstract
The laser tube bending process (LTBP) process is a thermal non-contact process for bending tubes with less springback and less thinning of the tube. In this paper, the laser tube bending process will be studied experimentally. The length of irradiation and irradiation scheme are two main affecting process parameters in the LTBP process. For this purpose, different samples according to two main irradiation schemes (Circular irradiating scheme (CIS) and axial irradiating scheme (AIS)) and different lengths of laser beam irradiation (from 4.7 to 28.2 mm) are fabricated. The main bending angle of laser-bent tube, lateral bending angle, ovality, and thickness variations is measured experimentally, and the effects of the irradiating scheme and the length of irradiation are investigated. An 18 mm diameter, 1 mm thick mild steel tube was bent with 1100 Watts laser beam. The results show that for both irradiating schemes, by increasing the irradiating length of the main and lateral bending angle, the ovality and thickness variation ratio of the bent tube are increased. In addition, for a similar irradiating length, the main bending angle with AIS is considerably higher than CIS. The lateral bending angle by AIS is much less than the lateral bending angle with CIS. The results demonstrate that the ovality percentage and the thickness variation ratio for the laser-bent tube obtained by CIS are much more than the values associated with by AIS laser-bent tube.
Highlights
Laser forming technology is an advanced forming process that is growing rapidly and which has been implemented in various industries in recent years [1]
The main defects such as distortion of cross-section, springback, thinning in the tube wall, and wrinkling, which appear in the traditional tube bending methods such as tube bending with the mechanical tool are much less common in the laser tube bending process (LTBP) [7]
This is because, in the circular irradiation scheme, the plastic strains are created in only one section through the tube length, while in the axial irradiation scheme, the plastic strains are created in different sections along the length of the tube
Summary
Laser forming technology is an advanced forming process that is growing rapidly and which has been implemented in various industries in recent years [1]. Safari [9] investigated the effects of irradiating length and number of irradiating passes on the main and lateral bending angles, ovality, and thickness variations of laser-bent tubes experimentally. The numerical and experimental results showed that the bending angle of the laser-bent tube was noticeably increased by imposing a constraint at the free end of the tube in the heating step. Li and Yao [18] investigated the LTBP experimentally and numerically and studied the relations between the geometry of laser-formed tubes and process parameters. Silve et al [19] investigated the scanning sequences in the laser bending process of the tubes with square cross-sections experimentally. Kraus [20] studied the numerical simulation of the laser bending process for tubes with a square cross-section and studied the sequence of heating steps
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