Investigation of the influence of a two-step process chain consisting of laser cutting and subsequent forming on the fatigue behavior of AISI 304

In this work, the impact of laser cutting and a subsequent pre-deformation on the fatigue behavior of AISI 304 was investigated. This represents a typical process chain in steel sheet manufacturing. Laser cutting trials with variating process parameters were evaluated with regard to resulting dross formation and surface roughness. A subsequent deformation can influence the appearance of the laser cut edge. Fatigue tests up to 108 load cycles were carried out on specimens which were processed with selected parameter sets. It can be shown that dross attachment is the failure relevant feature which sets up a shape dependent, crack inducing notch effect. Furthermore, pre-deformation can detach melt droplets and therefore increase the fatigue strength.