Abstract
Laser forming, a plastic forming process applying heat stress, has been attracting attention in recent years because it is die-less and noncontact. However, as there have not been many reports discussing its characteristics, the authors have developed a CAM system for laser forming and discuss the results of a basic study conducted using the system in this paper. The system derives forming conditions (scanning position, scan speed, number of scans) for forming the required shape from CAD data input. The usefulness of the CAM system for forming primitive shapes and the feasibility of curved surface forming were confirmed by experiments and FEM analyses.
