Promoted Content: Light, Strong and Defect-Free Laser Welding - Perfecting the Process for the Automotive Industry

Engineers at ArcelorMittal are optimising the use of material for automotive design that meets safety standards and decreases environmental footprint.

Safety. Environmental impact. Cost-effective design. The number of factors an automotive manufacturer must consider when developing a car is staggering. With safety standards that continue to evolve over time, and the ever-present need to reduce emissions and price, one area that has major impacts on all of these concerns is the design and weight of the vehicle.

Automotive manufacturers rely on laser welded blanks (LWBs), which comprise metal sheets of different thicknesses and grades, to minimise and control the amount of material employed in different regions of a car, such as the frame and body (see Figure 1). Among other regulations, these blanks must keep up with crash safety requirements.

Enter ArcelorMittal, a company that produces strong, high-quality steel. Through numerical simulation, they are optimising their welding process of LWBs to create blanks that ensure proper performance and minimise part weight by finding the best combination of different grades and thicknesses in their welded steel sheets.