Forming of thin plate with diode laser Available to Purchase

Diode laser is applied to bend forming of thin stainless steel plate (AISI 304); the power is 10 W with the spot size of about 1 mm and the plate thickness is 0.1 mm. The bending characteristics depend on the conditions of the plate material, scanning speed of the beam, pre-bending and so forth. At low speed, there is possibility of bending both toward and away from the beam. The occurrence probability of bending away from the beam is about 0.1 to 0.3. As to a plate with pre-bending, the irradiation direction of the beam on the plate does not affect the bending direction; the plate always bends toward the same direction of the prebending even if the beam is supplied on the opposite surface. Furthermore, this is effective within some deviation distance from the ridge of the bent plane; the distance depends on the beam spot size. The characteristics are very useful for making complicated structure of thin plate; various shapes are formed and some of them are demonstrated.