Using a Car Body in White (BiW) to Study the Feasibility of Applying Laser Welding
Y. Zhang, L-P. Tan, S-C Li, G-Y. Chen and X. Cai
Laser welding has been widely used in the automotive industries nowadays due to its high processing speed, good weld bead profile, narrow weld, small heat affected zone (HAZ) and easiness to automate. It brings many more changes in the design of car body in white (BIW) than resistance spot welding. This paper presents an experimental study of the design for car BIW using laser welding. The implementation issues of the laser welding process, including tool collision, joint configuration, and fixturing were discussed. Reasonable ways for adjustment of the design were addressed. A new concept integrated fixture that can be used for both laser cutting and laser welding was proposed to increase the assembly accuracy, improve the weld quality and reduce the assembly time. Moreover, the use of the tailor-welded blanks was discussed and the experimental results showed that the tailor-welded blanks could be successfully applied on the car BIW.
Keywords: Fibre laser, car body, laser welding, body in white (BIW), design, fixture, tailor-welded blanks