Production and Usage of Laser-Beam-Welded Sheet Metal

In connection with the development of a fully galvanized passenger car body to be produced in large-scale series, use was made at Thyssen Stahl AG of laser welding technology to develop a new product for which no production possibilities previously existed anywhere in the world. Apart from the development of the welding technology and the application-related tests performed in parallel, an automatic production installation was designed and built in-house. By the end of 1986, some 400,000 laser-welded galvanized sheets had been successfully processed, chiefly into difficult, deep-drawn parts.