Factors Affecting Weld Line Movement in Tailor Welded Blank

Tailor Welded Blanks (TWB) are utilized in automotive industries widely because of their advantage of weight and cost reduction and maintaining required strength and structural integrity. TWB consist of two or more sheet having dissimilar or similar material and thickness; welded together to form a single sheet before forming it to desired shape. Forming of the tailor welded blank is affected by ratio of thickness of blanks, ratio of their strength, etc. mainly due to in-homogeneity of material. In the present work the relative effect of these parameters on weld line movement is studied during deep drawing of TWB using FE simulation using HYPERWORKS. The simulation is validated with results from the literature. Simulations were than performed based on Taguchi orthogonal array followed by the ANOVA analysis to determine the significance of these parameters on forming of TWB.

An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Press Force and Weld Line Displacement of Tailor Welded Blanks in Conventional and Rubber Pad Sheet Metal Forming

To investigate the behavior of sheet metals during forming tailor welded blanks (TWB) of various thickness made via Co2 Laser welding are under consideration. These blanks are formed used two different forming methods of rubber as well as the conventional punch and die methods. The main research objective is the effects of using a rubber die instead of a solid one the displacement of the weld line and the press force needed for forming. Specimens with thicknesses of 0.5, 0.6, 0.8 and 1mm are subjected to Erichsen two dimensional tests and the resulted force for each case are compared. This is followed by a theoretical and numerical study of press force and weld line displacement. It is concluded that using rubber pad forming (RPF) causes a reduction in weld line displacement and an increase in the press force.