• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.538-543
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• 2002

M/S TB(Mash Seam Tailored Blank) is a production method for blanks by welding together blanks of different material, thickness and coating, and is an attractive method for manufacturing car body because it makes parts lighter and can save the cost and time to manufacture. However, there have not been quantified criteria to evaluate the quality of TB weld. This study introduced FHR (failure height ratio) in order to assess formability or/and weldability of the M/S welds and the applicability of FHR was confirmed by actual auto body forming and FLD tests. Furthermore, a new parameter, HN(heat number) based on the heat input of "$Q=I^2Rt$" was proposed and assessed. It was found that the concept of HN could be utilized to evaluate the soundness of M/S welds without any destructive tests.ive tests.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.429-436
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• 1999

In sheet metal forming , forming limit diagram is very important to design and analyze of sheet metal forming process. Recently tailor welded blanks of different thickness and different material and strength combinations are used widely in automobile industry to reduce car manufacturing cost. In order to analyze the forming characteristics of tailored welded blanks, we have investigated the forming limit dia-grams for 3 kinds of different material using mash seam and laser welding experimentally and dis-cussed for the characteristics of forming for tailor welded blanks. It is concluded that forming limit dia-gram for the different material combination TWB locates between FLD of the thinner base material sheet and the thicker ones.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.206-215
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• 2002

It is to be classified into friendly environment and safety problems, as a main technology development of the recent automotive industry. As these tendency, lots of automobile companies focus on a reduction of fuel expenses and strengthen of crash safety using high strength steel. In this study advanced technologies such as tailored blanks, aluminum extrusion and high strength steel forming applied to bumper beam will be described. As a result of impact analysis and an actual impact test, in terms of beam performance and a possibility fur the mass production will be discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.22-30
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• 2000

The sub-frame of passenger car begins to be used widely for the safety of passengers. Conventional design of the sub-frame comprises 22parts, and it requires quite complicated production processes. In this papers, the sub-frame is designed with TWB(Tailor Welded Blanks) to improve stiffness, to reduce weight and to simplify the manufacturing process. To design the proper structure, structural analysis and crash analysis are executed about the conventional design and TWB applied design. A prototype TWB applied sub-frame is manufactured using mash-seam welded TB(Tailored Blanks). Comparing with the conventional sub-frame, the TWB applied sub-frame has 30% weight reduction and 17% increasement of structural stiffness in average.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.95-101
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• 1998

The steel door inner was manufactured via a new route, tailored blanking process, to remove hinge reinforcement parts, using thicker panels laser welded, instead. It is very important, first of all, in this process, to design optimum configuration of tailored blanks and determine the optimum process control for the stamping. Generally, it was found that the severe deformation reduction behavior during stamping in the thinner panel around weld line caused cracks and the other troubles in formability. It is our purpose of this investigation to introduce how the process control parameters, such as tailored blank configuration, size, location in the die, the position of weld line, BHF, bead configuration, work on the formability. In addition, causes of cracks and movement of weld line after forming were analyzed and compared with computer simulation work.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.323-327
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• 1996

Gap and thickness difference information between blanks are often necessary for tailored blank welding quality evaluation , optimum welding parameters selection and evaluation of shearing machine, blink allocation device accuracy and clamping device. We develope 3D vision system and camera unit using structured lighting for this purpose. A simple ar d efficient scheme for gap and thickness feature recognition Is developed as well as measurements. Experimental results shows this system measuring accuracy is 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and 16${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ for gap and thickness difference respectively The data are expexed to be useful for preview gap control.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.102-109
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• 1998

In this study, the side panels were developed using the laser-welded Tailored Blanks (TB) with both the same thickness and the different thickness. At first, the formability of the same thickness T.B was investigated to be compared with one of the non welded panel with respect to weldline movements and strain distribution on blank during the stamping. Based on these results, we selected candidates of T.B with different thickness for stamping experiments. That is, we determined the weld line positions and the die step. Then we made some stamping tryouts with selected types of blank designs to investigate the formability of T.B with different thickness. During the tryouts, the wrinkles were found in the a-pillar lower region which is under the deformation mode of the shrink flange. In the b-pillar region, the fractures were found also, these defects have been reduced and corrected by controlling the blank design and the die faces and process pamameters.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.66-75
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• 1999

Weld bead quality in tailored blank(TB) is critically affected by edge preparation of sheets. The edge quality of prepared sheets for TB can be classified into straightness and the cross section quality of sheared plane such as a ratio of shear face, shear plane angle, etc. In order to have a good edg quality for butt-welding sheets, precision shearing will be recommended. In this paper, the feasibility of a conventional mechanical shearing as the edge preparation for tailored blanks is studyied. It reveals that fine shearing may not be the unique solution as it is generally accepted. To obtain the good shearing condition with a conventional mechanical shearing, experiments were carried out using Tahuchi method. The major parameters affecting a sheared contour are the clearance between upper blade and lower blade, and shear angle. The optimal shearing condition yields a very good straightness along the entire length of the cut, which gives a butt joint gap less than 10% of the base material thickness. The good cross section of sheared plane is also achieved in the optimal shearing condition such as a ratio of the shear face above 65%, a cross section's shear plane angle above 85%, little burr, which is providing finally good weld beads.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.283-293
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• 2001

Laser welded tailored blanks(TB) are increasingly used in automotive parts. Among these, TB side panel has forming difficulties in stretch flanging areas such as front and center pillar lower region. To avoid splits in the stretch flanging areas, Proper design of blank shape and drawbeads are essential In this study, the forming simulaton is carried out to investigate the influences of blank shape and drawbeads on stretch flange formability of different thickness TB. And an optimization procedure including the effects of both the blank design and drawbeads is presented. The optimization procedure proposed in this study is expected to be effectively used in blank and die design of TB side panel.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 2000

On the laser weld production line, a slight alteration of the welding condition produces many defects. The defects are monitored in real time, in order to prevent continuous occurrence of defects, reduce the loss of material, and guarantee good quality. The measurement system is produced by using three photo-diodes for detection of the plasma and spatter signal in CO$_2$ laser welding. For high speed CO$_2$ laser welding, laser tailored welded blanks for example, on-line weld quality monitoring system was developed by using fuzzy multi-feature pattern recognition. Weld qualities were classified optimal heat input, a little low heat input, low heat input, and focus misalignment, and final weld quality were classified good and bad.