Computer-aided process planning system for laser forming: from CAD to part
提出一个端到端的钣金制造系统，利用激光成形和切割，从3D CAD模型自动生成制造信息并完成生产，实验验证了其在多种零件上的一致成形与切割性能。
Laser forming is a highly flexible and iterative contactless thermomechanical forming process that utilises a defocused laser beam to induce material shortening and bending. There is a high potential for the use of laser forming in rapid prototyping, small and unique batch production; however, to achieve that potential a certain level of automation is required. The presented work seeks to address this need of automation by proposing an end-to-end sheet-metal manufacturing system utilising laser forming and cutting, where the input for the system is a 3D CAD model and the output is a manufactured product. The contribution of the presented work is interconnected laser forming and cutting framework. The presented framework consists of subsystems for automatic extraction of geometrical information from a CAD model, process planning and generation of manufacturing information, scheduling of tasks and a feedback control loop for laser forming. The framework is experimentally validated and has shown consistent forming and cutting behaviour on two types of parts with variation in cutting features, bend angle and lengths of the bend's free edge.