CaliBend: a flexible, cost-effective laser module for thermal-assisted bending of high-strength steels

“CaliBend” is a diode laser module for the thermally assisted processing of steel sheets. The CaliBend module aims to enable bending processes of high-strength steels (HSS) with minimal bending radii without damaging the metal part. E.g. for one application, a laser source was integrated into an industrial servo press for continuous chip processing. The sheet is locally heated by laser radiation before the bending stroke. By reaching power densities close to 40 W / mm², the bend line of the sheet metal reaches the hot forming temperature regime in less than two seconds, allowing for error free treatment while increasing the typically low forming limits of high strength steels. For this system, 8 individual stacks of 940 nm with 1 kW optical power (MONOCROM @MET DIRECT DIODE Module)  are used to achieve a power density of 40 W / mm². Click here for more details