A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of Science in Engineering.
Date: September 2017, Johannesburg / The focus in this research investigation is to investigate the Process Parameter
Optimisation in Laser Beam Forming (LBF) process using the 4.4 kW Nd: YAG laser
system – Rofin DY 044 to form 200 x 50 x 3 mm3 mild steel - AISI 1008 samples. The
laser power P, beam diameter B, scan velocity V, number of scans N, and cooling flow
C were the five input parameters of interest in the investigation because of their
influence in the final formed product. Taguchi Design of Experiment (DoE) was used
for the selection and combination of input parameters for LBF process. The
investigation was done experimentally and computationally. Laser Beam Forming
(LBF) input parameters were categorised to three different levels, low (L), medium (M),
and high (H) laser forming (LBF) parameters to evaluate parameters that yield
maximum bending and better surface finish/quality. The conclusion drawn from LBF
process is that samples which are LBFormed using low parameter settings had
unnoticeable bending and good material surface finishing. On the other hand, samples
LBFormed using medium parameters yielded visible bending and non-smooth surface
finishing, while samples processed using high LBF parameters yielded maximum
bending and more surface roughness than the other two process parameters. / MT2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24184 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Sobetwa, Siyasanga |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (166 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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