Development of Computer-Aided Process Planning System for Plate Bending by Line Heating (Report 1)—Relation Between Final Form of Plate and Inherent Strain

Plate bending by line heating can be considered as a process in which plates are bent to three-dimensional form by the plastic strain caused during the gas heating and water cooling. Therefore, the plan making for this process can be separated into two parts. The first part is to decide what type and how much plastic strain should be applied on which location on the plate. The second part is to find what are the proper heating and cooling conditions to get the desired plastic strain. The authors investigated the relation between the final form of the plate and the plastic strain or the inherent strain to be applied for the plate bending. For this purpose, the finite-element method (FEM) is employed. Based on the knowledge obtained through the analysis, a method to determine the part of the plate to be heated and the magnitude of the required inherent strain is proposed.