Structural Performance of Tailor Welded Sheet Steels

Tailor welded blanks provide significant benefits to the automotive industry in terms of reduced production or fabrication costs and improved performance. In this study, a systematic approach using Design of Experiments (DOE) methods was adopted to evaluate the crashworthiness performance of rectangular section beams made from various tailor welded blanks. A resolution IV design with thirty two observations was chosen for the test in order to understand the main effects as well as the two-factor interactions. Three types of welding technologies, resistance spot welding, mash-seam welding and laser welding, were used to join materials with different strengths, thicknesses, and surface treatments. Both aluminum-killed drawing-quality (AKDQ) and high strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels were selected for comparison. There were thirty two axial impact tests and thirty two bending impact tests. Two spot welded blanks failed in the axial impact tests and there was one spot welded blank failure in the bending impact tests. There were no laser or mash-seam welded blank failures found in all tests. The results of this systematic study provide quantitative supporting data for use of tailored blanks in vehicle structural design.