18498172. LASER WELDED BLANK WELD SEAM SAFETY DETERMINATION METHOD (FCA US LLC)
LASER WELDED BLANK WELD SEAM SAFETY DETERMINATION METHOD
Organization Name
Inventor(s)
Chunlei Wang of Rochester Hills MI US
Kaiping Li of Shelby Township MI US
Robert D Miller of Lake Orion MI US
Yongjun Zhou of Rochester Hills MI US
Richard Siemen of Shelby Township MI US
LASER WELDED BLANK WELD SEAM SAFETY DETERMINATION METHOD
This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18498172 titled 'LASER WELDED BLANK WELD SEAM SAFETY DETERMINATION METHOD
Original Abstract Submitted
A method for estimating the strength of a laser welded blank including a first blank and a second blank joined together by a weld seam. The method may include forming a plurality of indentations in the first blank, the second blank, and the weld seam to determine an average value of a micro-hardness (Vickers); determining a scale-up ratio K; multiplying the scale-up ratio K by the average values of the micro-hardness of each of the first blank, the second blank, and the weld seam to obtain a scaled-up average value of the microhardness of each of the first blank, the second blank, and the weld seam; running a finite elemental analysis (FEA) simulation using the scaled-up average values of the microhardness; and based on the results of the simulation, determining whether the strength of the laser welded blank is sufficient to withstand being subjected to a forming process.