Light Weight Materials

7Effect of Formability Parameters on Tailor-Welded Blanks of Light Weight Materials

Improvement in today’s living standards and enhancement of innovative technology in the automotive manufacturing industry have led industries and researchers to use advanced manufacturing techniques or innovative ideas that discourse customer requirements, as well as design and development ought to be cost-effective and should prove to be beneficial for both the industry and the consumer. Different materials with varying cross-sections need to be used based on requirements in aerospace and automotive industries. To organize this, researchers are enthusiastically proposing a tailor-made welded blank (TWB) strategy, and this technique has been adopted in many automotive industries. This research was carried out to test the formability of TWBs with various light alloy sheets used in aerospace and automotive industries. An overall review of various parameters affecting the formability of TWBs is presented in this chapter, so that other investigators can rely on this for more critical observations in this field.

7.1. Introduction

The automotive industry has paid exceptional attention to arrangements for weight loss and fuel economy over the last few years. Therefore, tailor-welded blanks (TWBs) are mainly used for manufacturing the automotive outer body. A TWB is prepared from several different materials that are combined with similar or dissimilar strengths or thicknesses to shape a sole component ...