Experimental Evaluation, Modeling and Statistical Analysis of Laser Forming Process of Curved Tubes

The laser forming process aimed at fabricating curved tubes from initially straight tubes using an irradiation scheme with parallel straight lines is experimentally studied. The effects of laser parameters—laser output power, laser scanning speed, laser beam diameter and number of irradiating lines—on the radius of curvature (RC) of laser formed tubes are investigated. The design of experiment (DOE) method based on response surface methodology (RSM) is employed to accurately and comprehensively analyze the effects of each input parameter and their interactions on the RC. The results demonstrate that the proposed irradiation scheme successfully produces curved tubes from straight tubes. It is also concluded that increasing the laser output power and number of irradiating lines decreases the RC, while increasing in the laser scanning speed and laser beam diameter increases the RC. Optimization of the input parameters indicates that to achieve the minimum RC, the laser output power, laser scanning speed, laser beam diameter and number of irradiating lines should be set to ۱۱۵ W, ۲ mm/s, ۱ mm and ۷۵, respectively.

Keywords:

Laser forming process , Curved tube , Experimental evaluation , Statistical modelling , Optimization