Laser shock induced incremental forming of pure copper foil and its deformation behavior

•Metallic micro-channel is fabricated by laser shock incremental forming (LSIF).•Metal foil is gradually deformed along the travelling direction of laser spot.•Metal foil is divided into three feature regions under each laser pulse in LSIF.•Appropriate enhancement of laser power density can improve forming quality in LSIF. A novel method to fabricate micro-channel named laser shock incremental forming (LSIF) was proposed in the present study. A finite element model was established to capture the plastic deformation of metal foil during LSIF process. Formability of single straight-line channel on T2 pure copper foil by LSIF was explored through both numerical and experimental approaches. The deformation behavior of metal foil in LSIF was discussed in detail. The effect of laser power density on the bending angle and micro-hardness of formed parts was also investigated. It is revealed that LSIF can serve as a feasible approach to fabricate metallic micro-channel. During LSIF, each laser pulse makes a portion of metal foil deform and the deformation region mainly concentrates in the affected area of laser spot. By through the ordinal moving of laser spot, the metal foil is gradually deformed along the travelling direction of laser spot. Under each laser pulse in LSIF, the metal foil can be divided into three regions: deformed, to be deformed and undeformed region. The deformed region enlarges after each laser shock, and meanwhile the undeformed region reduces until disappears. Both the surface quality and dimension accuracy of micro-parts can be improved through increasing the applied laser power density. Also the micro-hardness values are improved as the enhancement of laser power density due to the strengthened strain hardening effect.