Laser Welded Tailored Blanks
Tailor welded blanks are made by welding two or more sheets of metals having different thicknesses, material properties, coatings and strength. These welded parts are then formed and stamped to make a finished component with superior performance.
Since one can make components with “tailor”made properties such as strength, thickness, coatings at desired location, hence the name Tailor Welded Blanks.
Tailor welded blanks are now widely used in automobile BIW (body-in-white) structure.They solve a very crucial challenge faced by automobile manufacturers, that is to reduce body weight and improve fuel efficiency without compromising on the structural strength of the vehicles.
Benefits of Tailor Welded Blanks :
- Reduced weight and improved fuel efficiency
- Cost reduction due to use of high strength material only where required
- Improved structural strength
- Improved crash performance
- Efficient material utilization while making parts with reduced scrap
- Consolidation of parts reduces the number of parts required thus capital cost in setting large numbers of toolings and assembly lines is also reduced.
Also Read: Porosity in Laser Welding
Advantages of Laser Welding of Tailored Blanks:
- Laser welding requires only single side access to weld the components whereas for spot welding two side access and flat flanges are required. Due to elimination of flat flanges the overall weight of the part is reduced significantly.
- Since two materials having different thicknesses as well as strength are welded together and stamped afterwards this eliminates the need for having reinforcement blanks which further reduces the weight of the part.
- Laser beam is a highly concentrated source of energy. The heat input during laser welding is minimal hence distortion is reduced or nil.
- The heat affected zone (HAZ) plays a crucial role during forming operation and later in structural strength. Laser welding produces a very narrow HAZ.
- Laser welded blanks have better dimensional integrity. Removal of spot weld has positive influence on overall compartment noise, vibration and harshness (reduced NVH)
- Now flat sheets are butt welded using lasers eliminating overlap joints required earlier for spot welding , this results in improved corrosion protection overall.
- Laser welding is a very high speed , precise, automated and scalable process thus it helps in reaching production targets as per customer needs.
- Laser welding is suitable for welding most of the materials which are used for Tailor welded blanks such as AHSS (Advanced high strength steels), Dual phase steels (DP), CP and TRIP steels and mild steel with coatings.
- Use of Aluminum has increased in car body manufacturing. Lasers are also very well suited for welding tailor blanks made of Aluminum.