Investigations on Laser Beam Welding Dissimilar Material Combinations of Austenitic High Manganese (FeMn) and Ferrite Steels

For the past few years the customer's demand for more fuel efficient and at the same time safer vehicles has steadily increased. Consequently, light weight design has become one of the main interests in engineering. With regard to sheet metal components, a new class of high manganese steels, based on the TWIP (twinning induced plasticity) effect, provides the opportunity of shaping light weight designed thin and complex sheet metal geometries with advanced crash performance. In terms of weldability, due to their thermo-physical properties (high content of C, Mn, Al, Si), FeMn steels have to be handled differently in comparison to conventional steel grades. Particularly dissimilar material combinations of FeMn and ferrite steels are in the center of interest for industrial applications. This study reveals that metallurgical properties of dissimilar welding seams can be influenced considerably by laser beam welding, resulting in a change of the mechanical properties of the seam which is practicable without using filler material as described in (Flugge et al., 2011). (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.