Laser bending process of preloaded sheet metal

Laser bending process of preloaded sheet metal was reviewed on theoretical researches, forming experiments, numerical simulations and material performance studies of formed sheets. Considering the pre-bending platforms that used in the forming experiments can only work on few simple pre-bending types and small sized sheet metals, a large and flexible pre-bending platform was developed by authors. Experiments were done on this platform. The results of experiments showed that different pre-bending types lead to bending sheet metals into different curved shapes and large sized structure components of flight vehicles can be formed using this process. Based on the current research status, further developments and challenges of this process are discussed.