Application of the diode laser for welding in tairoled blanks

During the last years, one of the most interesting subjects in the automotive industry is the weight reduction of the automobile, and so to diminish the fuel consumption. Among other performance, the use in the body car of materials which have high mechanical resistance must be considered for the weight reduction of the automobile and maintaining high benefits. In this work, it has been studied the utilization of the diode laser for high resistance steel sheets welding, concretely microalloying steels (ZStE), DP dual phase and TRIP transformation induced plasticity. These steels can be employed in tailored blanks, which are defined as two or more separate pieces of flat material of dissimilar thickness and/or physical properties joined together before forming, to provide superior qualities in the finished stamped part. In this study, the metallographic characterization has been realised in the welding seams, and the mechanical behaviour has been analysed employing the following tests: microhardenss, drawing, tensile and fatigue. (Author) 15 refs