On the Three-Dimensional Laser Bending of Metal Tubes

Abstract:

Laser tube bending is a kind of plastic forming method with high flexibility, and is suitable for the low ductility material and thin thickness tube. This paper proposes a systematic scheme for three-dimensional tube bending, which forms the tube by varying the bending position and bending direction continuously. The bending part is simplified as a three-dimensional curve and then the curve is divided into segments and substituted with line sections. The scheme takes the angle between two adjacent segments as the laser bending angle at each bending position and the angle between two adjacent bending plane as the variation of bending direction. The effectiveness of proposed scheme is verified with the forming of a helical tube experimentally. The dimension errors of the formed helical tube are 6.25% in diameter and 7.59% in pitch respectively.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 197)
• Pages: 297-301
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.197.297
• Online since: September 2012
• Authors: Nan Hai Hao, Yu Ling Gai
• Keywords: Forming, Geometrical Analysis, Helical Tube, Laser

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