Investigation into microforming based on laser-assisted heating

In order to solve the forming difficulty occurring in the microforming microparts made of hard-to-deform materials, the experimental study on laser-assisted heating of the micropart of aluminum alloy was performed by means of pulsed laser.With the help of ABAQUS finite element software, the coupled thermomechanical finite element model of microupset was built up based on laser-assisted heating method.Then the temperature distribution of the workpiece and microforming process were simulated and analyzed.The results show that the temperature field distributions are oval and flatting with the certain laser parameters (laser power is 800mW,heating time is 0.08s and spot radius is 0.1mm), and that the temperature distribution is uniform after a very short time.The microforming stress using laser-heating method decreased about 30% compared with that of room temperature.The obtained results are helpful to improve the microforming properties of plastic materials and perfect micro-hot and microwarm forming process.