Abstract

In recent years, a new process has been gaining popularity as a suitable enabler for rapid prototyping in sheet-metal fabrication: laser forming. Laser forming is an iterative contactless thermo-mechanical forming process, that utilizes a defused laser beam to induce material shortening and bending, making it suitable for both single and double curved geometries.

The main motivation behind the PhD work is the utilization of laser forming as a viable technology for rapid prototyping of sheet-metal parts. The PhD work has been conducted as part of the joint industrial research project INTERLASE, which aims at creating a fully automated flexible production system for sheet-metal forming that utilizes various laser processes.

The presented work investigates the limiting factors of laser forming by looking into its hardening kinetics. The results are used to guide the design of an overall architecture for a laser forming enabled manufacturing system for sheet-metal parts. Afterwards, the system is developed, tested, and evaluated by manufacturing a number of sheet-metal components. Lastly, an investigation on the efficiency of laser forming from the point of view of the material’s behaviour is conducted.

The PhD work shows that laser forming can successfully be utilized within a greater manufacturing system and opens a number of new potential research venues.