Abstract
The laser forming process is a new flexible forming process without forming tools and external force, which is applied to various fields of industry. Especially, applications of the laser forming process focused on cutting, welding and marking process. In this paper, the laser bending process of sheet metal which is heated by laser beam and formed by internal stress is simulated by using thermo elastic-plastic analysis model. Based on the result of FE-analysis, the laser bending machine is made to obtain reliable data for sheet bending. Under the same condition as FE-analysis, the laser bending experiment has been performed to ver 펴 the result of FE-analysis and good agreement has been obtained between FE-analysis and experiments. Additional laser bending experiments have been performed to evaluate the laser bending machine.