Characteristics of weld line movements for the deep drawing with drawbeads of tailor-welded blanks

The purpose of this study is to investigate the weld line movements of laser welded tailored sheets during the deep drawing process with and without round drawbeads. Square blanks have been used and they have three different weld line locations. The differences of the weld line movements and the tendencies of the thickness strain distributions were investigated by experimental and analytical methods. With consideration for the amount of movement and for the thickness strain in the central and diagonal direction, the larger are the values, the longer are the distances from the center line to the initial weld lines. The drawbead adds additional restraining forces to the blank, so that the movement of the weld line is reduced and the thickness strain distribution is changed.