Welding tool

Corus, the international steel company, has developed a new computer aided engineering (CAE) approach to weld durability and performance assessment, which it believes will help automakers optimise component design and weld performance in vehicle structures.

Corus also says that the unique software tool will help OEMs reduce new vehicle development time and costs in addition to reducing component costs.

Automakers today are under growing pressure to bring new cars to market faster and are increasingly using Computer-Aided Engineering in almost all areas of the development process and car design.  However, until now, CAE has not been widely used in the area of weld performance and durability assessment.

'Historically, the ability to assess how a weld performs on a vehicle structure has posed particular challenges.  Existing durability tests are very time consuming and can lead to development delays and sometimes less than optimum designs of components,'  said Nick Busby, Commercial Manager, Automotive, Corus Strip Products UK.