Welding enabling light weight design of heavy vehicle chassis

Development of lightweight cars for saving fuel and reducing emission has been a priority for more than a decade. A similar trend is now seen for heavy vehicles. Here, however, the chassis rather than the cab is in focus, since this is by far the heaviest part of the vehicle. Using welding fabrication has many advantages like larger freedom in choice of material and more compact design. However, there are also factors like fatigue strength, residual stresses and geometric distortion, which must be addressed. There are large potentials to save weight in heavy vehicles by utilising high strength steels or aluminium alloys. In general, existing joining methods can be used, but new filler materials or recently developed post-weld treatments may be necessary to fulfil the demands on the components. In this paper, two examples are given, showing possible weight reduction solutions. In both cases, welding plays a central role.