Tailor Welded Blanks
Optimized sheet metal parts
Made to fit
Tailor Welded Blanks are made from individual steel sheets of different thickness, strength and coating which are joined together by laser welding. These tailor-made
products ensure that the finished part features the right steel in the right place. One advantage is to reduce weight. In addition, the structural and crash performance
of the vehicle body is improved: thicker or higher-strength materials can be used in highly stressed areas, while thinner sheets or softer deep-drawing grades can
be used in other areas.
This targeted use of materials also cuts costs. Expensive materials are only used where they are needed. This allows a flexible part design that fully optimizes
the material properties available.
The use of tailored steel solutions eliminates the need for additional reinforcements and overlapping joints in the body, saving material and further reducing total
weight. In this way, tailored blanks are a significant enabler to meet specified CO2 targets. Reducing the weight of a car by 100 kilograms reduces CO2 emissions
by between 0.5 and 2.3 tons over the average lifetime of the vehicle.
Advantages of tailored products
The targeted combination of different steel grades and thicknesses provides tailored products with their classic advantages:
- Lower weight
- Reduced part costs
- Optimized crash performance through the use of high-strength materials
- Optimized material utilization through efficient nesting
- Lower capital costs for tooling and assembly lines through reduction in number of parts
- Lower product design costs due to part consolidation
- Elimination of overlapping joints improves corrosion behavior