A tailored welded blank is often composed of several flat sheets of steel, each having different strengths, thicknesses and/or
finishes. The blank welding process welds these individual sheets together before they are stamped into a single auto-body panel. Laser Welding International, Inc. offers both linear (straight-line) and curve-a-linear laser welding of blanks.
When compared to the conventional manufacturing method, tailor welded blanks offer many advantages. The conventional manufacturing method utilizes several stampings to form these individual sheets which are later spot welded to create
a single panel such as a door inner. By reducing several manufacturing sets, the blank welding process significantly reduces the time and cost to produce these
complex auto body panels. However, as you will see below there are advantages beyond cost savings associated with using tailor welded blanks.
Advantages of Tailor Welded Blanks
There are several advantages gained from using tailor welded blanks, including:
Lower Production Costs - by reducing several manufacturing steps using tailor welded blanks reduces costs of production.
Material Cost Savings - by utilizing thinner gauge materials where possible material costs are reduced.
Easier Hemming - tailor welded blanks eliminate the hemming problems at the top of the door caused by dissimilar metal gauges in the hemming area.
Engineering Flexibility - curve-a-linear tailor welded blanks allow for a greater degree of flexibility when engineering blanks.
Safety - laser welded blanks are more reliable than spot welds.
Weight Reduction - by eliminating reinforcement parts and replacing thick guage material with thin guage material where possible weight is reduced.
Less Vibration - there is less vibration noise than is experienced with spot welds.
Aesthetics - a continuous laser weld is more pleasing to the eye than are spot welds.
Contact LWI in order to find out how your production process can benefit from tailor welded blanks!
HIGH SPEED LASER BLANKING & CUTTING INFO AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
