Modelling the process chain forming-laser beam welding by means of FEM-simulation

Innovative manufacturing methods such as forming by means of an active medium and laser beam welding become increasingly important for lightweight design. In actual practice finite element modelling is therefore an established tool, which is able to predict the resulting properties of these structures without doing expensive experiments. Currently there are different process simulations available for the individual process stages, but the examination of the complete process chain-such as can be achieved for example by adopting interlinked process simulation methods-is not done. For this reason, the iwb deals intensively with the coupling of forming simulation with simulation of laser beam welding. In this paper a method is presented to couple the results of the forming simulation to the simulation of laser beam welding based on a commercial FE system. First results and sample applications will be presented.