Thermal Induced Stresses and Bending of an Aerospace Aluminum Alloy Sheet Using Laser Beam Forming With Surface Melting
摘要
Laser beam forming is a non-contact process that uses a laser beam as a heat source to deform components. In this study, the microstructural and mechanical aspects of an aluminum sheet of class AA6013-T4 were studied after shaping using a fiber laser. The surfaces of the aluminum plates were coated with graphite to increase their absorptivity. Under the conditions of 200 W power, treatment speed of 3 mm/s, and focal diameter of 0.5 mm on the surface of the plate, one to three runs were performed for each sample. The width and depth of the remelted lines did not vary significantly with the number of runs, whereas the in-depth hardness profile tended to become uniform as the number of irradiation cycles increased. This study indicated a tendency towards tensile (positive) residual stress in both the longitudinal and transverse directions, with relaxation in the free part of the sheet. These components have been associated with bending angles ranging from 0.04 to 0.13 rad, depending on the number of laser runs. The maximum tensile stresses measured in the fusion zone, which was transversal to the laser path, were approximately 100 MPa, independent of the number of runs.