A method for butt-welding of sheet metal, especially bodywork in the motor vehicle industry, where at least two flat workpieces with any desired contours are fed to a machining process. In a first sub-process, the workpieces are positioned in relation to one another forming a minimal gap and secured in place with holding means. In another sub-process, the position and width of the gap are measured continuously immediately before welding together and the measurements are used to control a laser welding head. The laser welding head is fit with a rotatable twin-spot lens, where the relative alignment of a main spot to an auxiliary spot is controlled depending on the absolute position of the gap and the gap width during the welding process while the processing lens of the laser welding head is rotated around the laser beam axis with the angle of rotation alpha.

A tailored welded blank produced from at least two blank parts, where at least one is a press-hardenable manganese-boron steel and at least one has a coating of aluminum or an aluminum-based alloy. The parts are welded by laser-beam welding or hybrid laser/gas-metal-arc welding, while retaining the coating, using shielding gas and a filler wire having in % by weight: C: 0.41 to 0.9; Si: 0.4 to 4; Mn: 0.4 to 3; optionally Cr: 0 to 10; and with optional alloying of one or more of: Mo: 0.01 to 1.0; B: 0.0008 to 0.0040; Ti: 2.5×B<=Ti<=5×B; V: 0.01 to 0.4; Nb: 0.01 to 0.2; W: 0.01 to 0.2; the remainder Fe and unavoidable impurities. The high proportion of C and Cr or additionally or alternatively of Mo, V, Nb and/or W enables hardening by carbide formation in a weld-seam region after welding.

A method for producing a welded steel blank (1) includes providing two precoated sheets (2), each comprising a steel substrate (3) having a precoating (5) on each of its two main faces (4), each sheet (2) comprising, on each main face (4), at a weld edge (14), a removal zone (18) in which the precoating (5) is removed over a removal fraction; and butt welding the sheets (2) using a filler wire (20) so as to create a weld joint (22) having an aluminum content Al.sub.WJ comprised between 0.1 wt. % and 1.2 wt. %. The composition of the wire (20) and the proportion of wire (20) added is such that the weld joint (22) has: (a) a quenching factor FT.sub.WJ such that FT.sub.WJ−0.96FT.sub.BM≥0, (b) a nickel content Ni.sub.WJ≤14−3.4×Al.sub.WJ and a chromium content Cr.sub.WJ≤5−2×Al.sub.WJ, where Al.sub.WJ is the aluminum content of the weld joint (22).

Method for joining a first and a second steel blanks, at least one of the blanks comprising aluminium. The method comprises providing a support being made of a magnetic material for each blank, the supports being arranged distanced apart by a central space; providing a coil winding around one support, arranging the first blank on one support and the second blank on the other support, such that a butt end of the first blank that is facing the second blank is brought into contact with a butt end of the second blank that is facing the first blank defining a contacting area that closes a path for magnetic flux. The method further comprises applying a laser beam onto the contacting area, while applying an alternating current to the coil winding, wherein an alternating magnetic field is created across the contacting area in a direction substantially in-line with the blanks.

A method for welding a stack of sheets having a plurality of sheets of different materials is provided. In an aspect, the stack of sheets includes an aluminum sheet and a galvanneal steel sheet. In an aspect, the method includes resistively spot welding the galvanneal sheet to a hot-stamped steel sheet placed between the aluminum sheet and the galvanneal sheet, the sheet of hot-stamped steel including stress relief sections. The method further includes placing a metal foil on the aluminum sheet and vaporizing the metal foil to project portions of the aluminum sheet through the stress relief sections of the hot-stamped steel sheet to weld the portions of the aluminum sheet to the galvanized steel sheet. In another aspect, the method includes placing the metal foil on a raised portion of the aluminum sheet and projecting the raised portion of the aluminum onto the galvanneal steel sheet.

This steel sheet has a base steel sheet, a coated portion, and an exposed portion, the shape of the end edge side of the steel sheet and the end portion on the outer side of the base steel sheet is a protruded curve represented by a curvature radius R1 and R1 is 5 μm or more.

The present disclosure provides a method that includes providing a first blank including an upper major surface, a lower major surface, and a plurality of side surfaces that connect the lower major surface to the upper major surface. The upper and lower major surfaces each includes a coating that includes aluminum, and the side surfaces are devoid of the coating. The method also includes forming an additive layer on at least one of the side surfaces that is devoid of the coating, and includes laser welding the first blank including the additive layer to a second blank, wherein a thickness of the additive layer is such that during the laser welding, the laser irradiates a material of the additive layer without irradiating the coating to form a weld pool that includes the material of the additive layer and does not include the aluminum of the coating.

A system for generating a G-code for controlling an operation of a laser-cutting machine to cut parts from a sheet of material, upon receiving cutting data specifying a cutting order of parts and a cutting order of edges of each part, tests the parts for potential distortions and generates a G-code to avoid the potential distortion. For testing a current part, the system detects a potential distortion when the final edge of the current part is adjacent to an edge of a previously cut part scheduled for cutting before the current part according to the cutting order of parts. The system modifies the cutting order to select the modified cutting order for which the final edge is not adjacent to any edge of any previously cut part.

A method for producing a welded blank (1) includes providing two precoated sheets (2), butt welding the precoated sheets (2) using a filler wire. The precoating (5) entirely covers at least one face (4) of each sheet (2) at the time of butt welding. The filler wire (20) has a carbon content between 0.01 wt. % and 0.45 wt. %. The composition of the filler wire (20) and the proportion of filler wire (20) added to the weld pool is chosen such that the weld joint (22) has (a) a quenching factor FT.sub.WJ: FT.sub.WJ−0.9FT.sub.BM≥0, where FT.sub.BM is a quenching factor of the least hardenable substrate (3), and FT.sub.WJ and FT.sub.BM are determined: FT=128+1553×C+55×Mn+267×Si+49×Ni+5×Cr−79×Al−2×Ni.sup.2−1532×C.sup.2−5×Mn.sup.2−127×Si.sup.2−40×C×Ni−4×Ni×Mn, and (b) a carbon content C.sub.WJ<0.15 wt. % or, if C.sub.WJ≥0.15 wt. %, a softening factor FA.sub.WJ such that FA.sub.WJ>5000, where FA=10291+4384.1×Mo+3676.9Si−522.64×Al−2221.2×Cr−118.11×Ni−1565.1×C−246.67×Mn.

A fixture assembly for supporting a plurality of blanks during a welding operation. The fixture assembly includes a frame. A plurality of electromagnets are positioned on the frame for supporting the blanks and for drawing the blanks toward the electromagnets to secure the blanks into a desired position. A plurality of intensifiers are moveably connected to the frame for selectively overlying the top face of one of the electromagnets for clamping the blank against the electromagnet to intensify a magnetic force provided by the electromagnet. A plurality of electromagnet adjusters are each coupled with the frame and with at least one of the electromagnets for moving the electromagnets relative to the frame. A plurality of adjusting pins are each connected to the frame and moveable relative to the frame for adjusting a position of the blanks.