Task
Due to their potential for material lightweight design the development of high strength steels leads to widespread application of these materials in automotive industry. Nevertheless up to date there is deficient experience in laser beam welding of these materials, especially for usage in dissimilar welds with mild steels. The project is aiming for an increase in process robustness regarding perturbations and increased process speed.

Approach
Besides an experimental approach for identifying suitable parameters, within the project numerical methods are applied to minimize the experimental effort. In cooperation with partners which are focused on model development for welding simulations a highly effective interlocking of experiment and simulation is formed to reach defect free weld seams at elevated welding speed.

Results
By parallel numerical simulation and experimental investigation welding parameters could be identified, which minimize the distortion during the welding process. Furthermore these were successfully transferred to new higher strength steels. Due to this procedure the welding process could be mapped to new material within a short time and the robustness could be increased.