Optimum parameters to minimize weld line movement in the warm forming of tailor-welded blanks

Abstract

This paper deals with optimizing geometric parameters such as thickness ratio and weld line location, to minimize the movement of weld line during the stamping of tailor-welded blank (TWB) components. Weld line movement (WLM) is an important aspect to consider; otherwise, it leads to wrinkling and other forming-related problems. The major contributors to WLM are thickness ratio, weld line location, and strengths of the respective blanks. Selective heating is a recent technique adopted to reduce the material properties of the higher strength TWB blank by heating it locally, thus allowing a shift in the weld line. In this work, laboratory and simulation experiments were conducted under warm forming conditions on the TWB blanks. Experiments were also conducted by placing the weld line at an offset distance of ± 1 mm from the centre of blank. The situation is to choose the best possible value among thickness ratio and weld line location under the influence of selective heating to minimize the WLM. The objective function of WLM is obtained from the MINITAB statistical software by conducting ANOVA method. The optimum values of the parameters were obtained by minimizing the objective function.