The Effect of Local Heating by Laser Irradiation for Aluminum, Deep Drawing Steel and Copper Sheets in Incremental Sheet Forming

Incremental sheet forming is a technique where a metal sheet is formed into a product usually by a CNC-controlled (Computer Numerical Control) round tipped tool. The part is formed as the tool indents into the sheet and follows a contour of the desired product. In single point incremental forming (SPIF) there is no need for tailored tools and dies, since the process requires only a CNC machine, a clamping rig and a simple tool.

The effect of applying local heating by laser irradiation from the bottom side of the metal sheet is investigated with a SPIF approach. Using a laser light source for local heating should increase the material ductility and decrease material strength, and thus, increase the formability. The research was performed using 0.50-0.75 mm thick, deep drawing steel, aluminum and copper sheets. The forming was done with a round tipped tool, whose tip diameter was 4 mm. In order to achieve selective heating, a 1 kW fiber laser was attached to a 3-axis stepper motor driven CNC milling machine. The results show that the applied heating increased the maximum achievable wall angle of aluminum and copper products. However, for the steel sheets the local heating reduced the maximum achievable wall angle and increased the surface roughness.