Aluminum tailor-welded blanks for automotive applications

Superb strength-to-weight ratio, immunity to corrosion, and intrinsic recyclability render aluminum and its alloys desirable for many manufacturing applications. Faced with increasing demands for fuel economy, the automotive industry has seriously begun to incorporate aluminum alloys into vehicles. Integration of aluminum alloys in closures, body structure, and frames provides desired light-weighting without compromising performance or safety. Currently, steel tailor-welded blanks are widely used in the automotive industry for body and closure panels. Tailored blanks are characterized by their optimized usage of alloy and gauge. Given the relative cost of aluminum alloys compared to steel, this concept tends itself well to implementation in aluminum alloys, Although many of the traditional fusion welding methods may be successfully used to produce aluminum tailor-welded blanks, the laser offers unique qualities that make it an ideal technology for this application. This paper includes a discussion of the characteristics of aluminum that must be considered for successful laser processing, a description of suitable lasers for aluminum, and the presentation of several prototype automotive tailor-welded blank applications.