Tailored blank welding with gap driven filler wire Available to Purchase

Novel car body designs for tailored blank (TB) body sides and nonlinear TB configurations for doors and floors ask for innovative solutions to bridge the inevitable gap between the parts to be welded in butt joint configuration. We have developed a welding process adding the respective missing material by a controlled filler wire. The process consists of a highly precise gap width measurement by a novel machine vision technology and a subsequent dynamic control of the filler wire speed. Welding joints with a gap from zero up to 0.4 mm results in a constant perfect seam quality. The process is integrated in a unique weld head of a nonlinear tailored blank welding machine. Investigations on the weld seam performance dependent on the original gap width are presented, i.e. seam profile, microstructure and hardness.