Effects of forced cooling in laser forming

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical bending studies of the alloy sheet of Magnesium M1A to achieve the bigger bending angle in a single laser forming process. A three-dimensional model of finite elements was created and different simulations were performed for sheet laser bending. Magnesium alloys are difficult-to-form yet have huge applications in automobile and aerospace industries because of its high strength to weight ratio. To study the sheet bending method and effect of various process parameters including laser scanning velocity, beam diameter and laser power, a three-dimensional numerical model was developed. The developed numerical model was designed with ABAQUS Simulia and validated with the published numerical model. On the validated numerical model, a further number of simulations were performed to understand the effects of forced cooling conditions in single scan laser forming process. This research work concluded that forced cooling conditions in laser forming can be used to increase the bend angle in a single scan.