High power laser forming of FE410 thick plates for development of clutch pedals and brake pedals

Abstract

Laser forming is a fast emerging technique for shaping of the metallic components. This process is of significant use for those industries which relied on the use of heavy and expensive dies for making of prototypes. It has found wide application in the aerospace, automotive, microelectronics, and ship building industries. Origin of this technique can be traced back to the established flame bending method, but it is comparatively more refined and controllable technique that offers numerous unique application possibilities. Unlike the conventional forming process, laser forming does not require heavy dies and punches; instead it is a noncontact type process that promotes the idea of „virtual tooling‟ [6,37]. Laser forming has no spring back effect and it reduces the cost and longer lead times associated with the hard tooling. It can be used even for forming of brittle materials [7]. It offers the process flexibility associated with other laser manufacturing techniques such as laser cutting, laser welding, soldering, brazing etc. This process can be used for highly accurate forming of the sheet metal products in a cost effective way.In this process the sheet to be bend is scanned with a high power laser. A temperature gradient is induced across the sheet thickness i.e. between the irradiated surface and the surface opposite to irradiated surface. The temperature gradient forces the material to expand non-uniformly generating non-uniform stresses and bending moment in the material. Due to the continuous heating the thermal stress exceeds the temperature dependent yield stress of the material, forming plastic deformation. Due to this the material bend inwards during the heating process and bends outwards during the cooling process [49]. Laser forming process in particular can be used for prototyping of the brake pedals and clutch pedals, for which the conventional method of forming is very costly and time consuming. The present work aims at investigating and analyzing the process parameters involved in the laser forming process of FE410 plates of 3mm 5mm and 8mm thickness for the application of clutch pedal and brake pedal prototyping. A study on the materials characterization of the laser formed samples for investigating the change in the mechanical properties of the material. And to find out a suitable model for predicting the bend angle of thelaser formed plates using the Artificial Neural Network, to make the process more operators friendly.