Tailored blank design and prediction of weld line movement using the backward tracing scheme of finite element method

Abstract

To achieve weight and cost reductions in component manufacturing, tailored blank is introduced for forming automotive structural skin components. In order to obtain successful application of tailored blanks without necessarily trimming after the forming process, it is critical to design an initial welded blank and to predict the weld line movement, which is usually determined by intuition and experience with the trial-and-error approach. A systematic approach method of the backward tracing scheme, which is confirmed by experiment, is extended to design the initial tailored blank for net-shape production in this study. The optimised tailored blank by the backward tracing scheme appears to be successful in obtaining a net-shape stamping product. This blank also improves the forming condition during stamping process. All simulation results show that the backward tracing scheme can be applied to more general blank design.