About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2027 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Materials and Manufacturing in Space
|
| Presentation Title |
Scaling up laser bending for in space manufacturing |
| Author(s) |
Nathan Fripp, Tianchen Wei, Partha Das, Victoria M. Miller |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Nathan Fripp |
| Abstract Scope |
Laser forming—a contactless thermal sheet forming process—will improve high precision autonomous manufacturing of large structures in space. During this process, a laser heats a metal sheet to induce a gradient in thermal expansion and stress, causing bending. Industrializing this manufacturing process requires a move from lab scale to production sizes and an understanding of the impact of the added interactions of complex geometries. In this work, 3003Al and AISI304 stainless steel samples were scaled up to quantify the effects of thermal mass and workpiece geometry on the bending process before the formation of tube structures. An analysis of the temperature evolution at various locations on the sheet and a variety of scan strategies were implemented to determine the ideal method of forming geometries larger than the laser working area. Identifying the influence of thermal mass will enable the scaling up of the laser bending process to real-world applications. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Aluminum, Shaping and Forming, Iron and Steel |