Prediction of bending behavior for laser forming of lime coated plain carbon steel using finite element method

Abstract

The laser-forming process is a flexible forming process. The process does not involve any rigid tooling to apply the force. In this process, the sheet metal is formed into the desired shape due to internal thermal stress induced by thermal heating used by Laser. Thermal and Mechanical Properties of the material play an important role in laser forming. The process is efficient and can produce complex metal parts. The magnitude of bending and resulting residual stresses are the primary concern in laser bending forming. Residual stresses are controlled through a cooling rate of the material. The application of suitable coating under Laser on the material affects the bending of the material. The retention of heat in the coating for a longer duration affects the out-of-plane bending and minimizes the residual stresses. In the present work, an attempt is made to study the effect of lime coating on the bending behavior of the plain carbon steel using a three-dimensional un-coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model. The model is validated for the un-coated steel from Literature, and the validated model is applied for the parametric study of the process and material parameters of the lime coating.