A novel path strategy design for precise 2D and 3D laser tube forming process; experimental and numerical investigation

Laser tube forming is a flexible process in which the heat generated by the laser beam scanning on the tube surface results in bending. Unlike laser sheet forming, few studies have been carried out on laser tube forming. This originates from the complexity of this process compared to the sheet forming, as well as the limited applicability of the forming strategies. In this research, a new idea is proposed based on the circular scanning method, which is presented in the form of two step-by-step and reverse schemes. Using this new strategy, it would be easy to precisely extract the laser scanning path for all 2D and 3D shapes. Since this strategy is programmable, it can be designed and implemented in a variety of forms only by changing the input parameters. In order to form a desired 2D and 3D shapes on a tube based on this idea, the proposed strategy was verified with both finite element and experimental methods. Fiber laser was used to form the AISI 304L tubes with certain parameters to achieve a specific bend angle. The experimental results are in a very good agreement with the designed path strategy and FE simulations, which confirms the efficiency and effectiveness of the path scanning strategy proposed in this paper.