LASER-WELDING OF TAILORED BLANKS

Laser welding has an incrising role in the automotive industry, namely on the sub-assemblies manufacturing. Several sheet-shape parts are la ser welded, on a dissmilar combination of thicknesses and materials, a nd are afterwads formed (stamped) being transformed in a vehicle body component. In this paper low carbon CO2 laser welding, on the thicknes ses of 1,25 and 0,75 mm, formability investigation is described. There will be a description of how the laser welded blanks behave in differ ent forming tests, and the influence of misalignment and undercut on t he formibility. The quality is evaluated by measuring the limit strain and limit effective strain for the laser welded sheets and the base m aterial, which will be presented in a forming limit diagram.