Effects of weld line in deep drawing of tailor welded blanks of high strength steels

Due to the increase of lightweight design in car bodies, there is a raise in use of tailored welded blanks (TWB). With these blanks it is possible to strengthen the car body where it is necessary. This can lead to less weight. In the case of TWB, there is a weld line, which influences the deep drawing behavior significantly during forming. In the presented results two different high strength steels (HCT980X and HCT600X) are welded together. One forming operation is performed, in which the weld line is positioned differently. The results show the influence of the weld line on the forming behavior which is realized by the comparison of deep drawn monolithic parts with the deep drawn tailored welded blanks. While the monolithic parts could be formed without failure, the forming of tailored welded blanks was accompanied by cracks in dependency to the weld line orientation and the applied load in this region. The results also show that the failure occurs in the base material and that the weld line is not damaged by the applied load. After the characterization of the base materials and the weld material, a numerical modelling of the whole TWB could be realized in this work. Two different ways of modelling techniques of the weld line are compared and the necessity of the consideration of the weld line properties is demonstrated. Furthermore, in consideration of the weld line properties in the FE-Model, it is possible to show that the weld line resists the forming operation without failure.