Investigation of Weld Seam Structures of Tailor Welded Blanks for Hot Stamping

Increasing safety requirements for hot stamped structural car body parts are demanding sufficient mechanical properties of integrated welding seams. Especially conventional tailor welded AlSi-coated 22MnB5 sheets are only fulfilling these requirements when ablated before laser welding and thermo-mechanically treated in a correct way. This paper shows a method that evaluates the hot stamping process of tailor welded blanks by press hardening different sheet thicknesses and thickness combinations in a testing tool. Furthermore, appropriate testing methods for the evaluation of mechanical properties of the welding seam are introduced. The results are ultimately compared with a special developed FEM analysis to predict failure cases in future.