Plasma-jet forming is a newly proposed flexible sheet metal forming process
. A non-transferred are plasma torch is used as a controllable heat source
to produce internal stress in sheet metals, causing plastic deformation wit
hout the necessity of hard tooling. This method has potential for rapid pro
totyping of sheet metal parts by reducing development costs and lead times.
A robotic system has been used to perform simple linear bends in several d
ifferent alloys. In order to develop a controllable process and to improve
the forming accuracy, the effects of various process parameters on the obta
ined shape changes and on the resulting structure and properties have been
studied. The overall goal is to understand the roles of the forming paramet
ers and their inter-relationship in optimizing the forming procedure-a high
forming speed without damage to the material structure or properties.