Abstract

Laser forming is a new metal-forming process that makes shapes by using laser irradiation. Cold-rolled AISI 304 stainless steel sheets have been cut into square samples and tensile-test samples. The former samples, which are 0.3 mm thick, have been irradiated with the defocused beam of a 100 W carbon dioxide laser. The samples were bent into a V-shape by repeated beam scans without the application of external force to the samples. The final bending angle of the irradiated samples was almost in proportion to the number of laser beam scans. This bending is caused by the thermal stresses that occur during the extremely rapid heating and cooling brought about by laser irradiation. The bending angle depends on the angle between the laser scan and the rolling direction because there is an anisotropy in the mechanical properties of cold-rolled samples.

© 1990 Optical Society of America