Study on mechanical and microstructural properties of advanced high-strength welded sheet metal

Abstract

Continuous research is carried out in the automotive industry to decrease the weight of automobile bodies without reducing durability. For this purpose, the use of welding sheet metal is one of the successful techniques. Welded sheets are formed by combining two or more flat materials with different thicknesses and different mechanical properties, using the welding method, before being shaped in order to provide superior properties. This situation requires more attention during the shaping stages. It is important to calculate the pressures to be applied to the welding areas and to apply the shaping steps in a way that will not reduce the material strength. For this reason, the production stages of the dies to be used in the manufacture of these parts are just as important. In this study, an innovative die design is carried out for the production of welded sheet metal. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the welded sheet formed by the die were examined. The effect of the forces applied to the welding areas on the material and the mechanical properties of the materials of different thicknesses were determined. Within the scope of the study, microstructure analysis, hardness and tensile tests were carried out and the results were examined. When the results obtained were examined, it was seen that the strength and hardness values of the samples obtained from the welded area were higher than the other areas. © 2023 by the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.