Paper Title
Investigation on Forming Behavior of Tailor Welded Blanks (TWBs) During Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) Process

Abstract
The automobile industries are aiming at reduction of weight of the vehicle body. This goal can be achieved by adopting the technology of Tailor Welded Blanks (TWBs). TWB is an outcome of joining of two or more than two material having same/different thickness and/or properties prior to any forming operation. As the TWBs involves weld zones in between the parent blanks, there is inhomogeneity in term of material properties in it. Due to this inhomogeneity TWBs are associated with disadvantages like weld line shift and formability reduction during the forming operation. Many efforts are made to improve the formability of homogeneous blanks which has resulted in the forming process like Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF). In this research work, forming behavior of TWBs during SPIF process has been investigated in terms of weld line shift, strain across the weld, force requirements and thinning. In order to save valuable resources like time and material, simulation methodology has been adopted for the investigation which is performed using ABAQUS/Explicit. First, the simulation methodology has been validated using available literature results and then present study has been extended for further investigations. As concluding remarks, it has been found that the load requirement, weld line shift and strain produced across the weld is less for SPIF process compared to the Limiting Dome Height (LDH) test. Keywords - Single Point Incremental Forming, Tailor Welded Blank, Forming, Limiting Dome Height, Weld line shift, Thinning, ABAQUS/Explicit.