An Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Average Laser Power and Angular Scanning Speed Effects on Laser Tube Bending Process

Abstract

Laser tube bending is a new technique of laser material forming to produce a complex and accurate shape due to its flexibility and high controllability. Moreover, the defects during conventional tube forming such as thinning, wrinkling, spring back and ovalization can be avoided in laser tube bending process, because there is no external force used. In this paper an analytical investigation has been conducted to analyses the effects of average laser power and laser scanning speed on laser tube bending process, the analytical results have been verified experimentally. The model used in this study is in the same trend of the experiment. The results show that the bending angle increased with the increasing of average laser power and decreased with the increasing of angular scanning speed.