Abstract
This paper deals with laser forming procedure to bend pure titanium sheets along arbitrary curved shapes. In preliminary experiments, single-straight-line bending was carried out, and the relationship between angle of bend and laser irradiation condition was investigated. The angle of bend could be controlled with the scanning velocity and the number of scanning passes. Using the experimental formula obtained by single-straight-line bending, we attempted to bend titanium sheet along a given parabolic shape with multi-straight-line bending. The experimental results corresponded well to the target shape. This paper proposed a laser forming procedure for curved shapes, including both convex and concave curves. The bending direction was controlled by defocus length of laser beam and pre-bending direction.
