Laser tailor-welded blanks for hot-press-forming steel with arc pretreatment

Abstract

Tailor-welded blanks (TWBs) are made of sheets with various strengths or thicknesses that ensure increased material strength without significantly increasing the weight. In this study, Al-Si-coated hot-press-forming steel sheets were subjected to laser butt welding for making TWBs. After laser welding, the welded blanks were heated and subsequently quenched to simulate a thermal cycle in the hot-press-forming process, and the properties of the welded joints were examined. Arc pretreatment was applied before laser welding, and its influence on the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the welds was analysed.

A review on the laser welding of coated 22MnB5 press-hardened steel and its impact on the production of tailor-welded blanks

“…[1,3,5,6,8,17,24] Hot Stamping Process Review of the hot-stamping process. [25][26][27][28][29][30] Laser Welding of Al-Si Coated PHSs Review of the issues associated with the welding process [27,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] Proposed Solutions A summary of the available solutions including their pros and cons. [23,[40][41][42] Laser Welding of Zn-Coated PHSs Review of the issues associated with the welding process as the location of the weld seam and its role in the overall formability of the blank.…”

Recent advances in mitigating fusion zone softening during laser welding of Al-Si coated 22MnB5 press-hardened steels

“…2. Implementing new laser welding processes [9,[26][27][28]: The literature proposes the use of arc pre-treatment, dual-beam laser welding, and laser oscillation welding as potential solutions to the issue of FZ softening. These techniques aim to achieve uniform Al distribution and prevent macro-segregation of Al along the fusion boundary (FB) by stabilizing the melt pool during keyhole mode laser welding and subsequently improving the flow of the molten liquid.…”

“…From amongst the many different solutions that have been proposed for solving the issue of FZ softening during LW of Al-Si coated 22MnB5 [7,9,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], there is a key consideration that is often overlooked, i.e., the effect of weld geometry on the mechanical properties of the joint. 22MnB5 finds its most practical utility in different applications in the press-hardened state, which means that the bulk microstructure is lath martensite [30][31][32].…”

One-step quenching and partitioning treatment of a tailor welded blank of boron and TRIP steels for automotive applications

“…Recently, hot stamping of TWBs has drawn considerable attention to achieve tailored properties in crash-relevant structural components, like B-pillars [3][4][5][6][7]. Boron steel (e.g., 22MnB5) is one of the most preferential materials to produce the upper section of B-pillars.…”