Study on sheet metal punched by laser shock waves

Laser punching technique is a new idea about hole-forming of sheet metal which is based on the effects of shock waves induced by laser and the high speed punching process.The theoretical minimum movement velocity for the sheet to be punched by laser shock waves was deduced.Also,the mechanism and the punching properties was analyzed on the basis of laser shock forming technology.To test the feasibility of laser punching,a corresponding experiment was designed.In the experiment,a neodymium glass high-power laser was adopted to irradiate the black coating painted on the surface of the 0.4mm thick aluminum sheet through the overlay-K9 glass,and the coating was gasified immediately into high-pressure plasma to generate a hole in the sample.The experimental results show there is no obvious distortion around the hole;the edge of hole is smooth;and the size of hole is dependent on the concave die.So,the laser punching technique can be used as an effective method for hole-forming.