Forming of Brittle Materials—A New and Valuable Application of Diode Lasers

Laser assisted bending is a new and versatile method to allow simple bending of brittle materials. Laser technology is used to illuminate and heat the forming zone. Only a laser allows directing the power on a narrow area. Further there is no unnecessary heating of other parts of the bending equipment, no wear of the tool and, if properly done, no damage of the surface of the metal. We describe now the integration of 200 W‐diode‐laser‐bars on micro‐channel coolers that where installed into the lower tool of the bending press. The solution allows any required bending length by a combination of several bending tools with integrated lasers. The optical power of 16 kW per meter bending length allows achieving the temperature necessary to bend brittle sheet metals within seconds.