Scanning Path Planning in Laser Bending of Tube Based on Curvature

Abstract

A method is presented based on geometric-curvature characteristics in which a scanning path planning for laser bending of a straight tube into a curve tube in a two- and three-dimensional space. In a two-dimensional (plane) bending, the steel tube is divided into several segments according to the extreme point and inflection point of the desired shape of the tube, taking the extreme point as the initial place of the path planning, using different scanning space for every segment in order to identify the scanning paths. For a tube bending in a three-dimensional space, a projection decomposition method is used, where the three-dimensional is decomposed into two two-dimensions, and respective scanning path planning and process parameters are thus acquired. By combining the data in the two-dimensional planes, the three-dimensional scanning path plan was obtained. Finally, an experimental verification is carried out to bend straight tubes into a two-dimensional sinusoidal and a three-dimensional helical coil-shaped tube. The results show that the proposed method of scanning path planning is effective and feasible.