Abstract
Welding is an absolutely essential component of industries such as the automotive industry, the construction industry and even the aviation industry. Although it is a widespread technology it is still characterized by lots of uncertainties. This still requires well experienced and highly skilled workforce to design and perform safe welding processes. The early knowledge of distortion and residual stresses is almost an issue which is influenced mainly by the welding parameters and the fixture design. But more and more engineers want to know as well final properties of the assembled components. With the beginning of the computer age in the 1970s and 1980s last century, the numerical prediction of manufacturing processes using FEM was gradually getting better and has established itself in the industry since the 1990s as a standard tool. Unlike in metal casting and forming industry, however, the everyday use of FEM- simulation tools for welding processes eked out a shadowy existence for a long time. This paper will give a short classification of welding simulation types and a structured overview on the technical questions. Selected case studies and the benefits achieved through simulations with the software Simufact welding are discussed. Finally an outlook on future developments will be given.