Thermal Forming and Welding Distortion

Nowadays, welding is a widespread and highly developed joining method. More than 120 automatic and manually operated processes are applicable. As an unwanted side effect, heating and melting induce thermal strains and alter certain material properties. This leads to distortions and high residual stresses which should obviously be kept to a minimum. Therefore, various strategies are being developed in order to minimize distortions; materials are investigated and mechanical as well as thermal boundary conditions are researched. In contrast to welding, the aim of thermal forming is to deliberately use thermal strains to generate predicted shapes. In thermal forming well-defined heat sources offer a reproducible heat input into a highly localized area. The different forming mechanisms are specified and further investigated. Furthermore, thermal forming can overcome limits of the accessibility and avoid disadvantages of mechanical forming like the spring-back effect. The intention of the 2nd IWOTE is to combine knowledge and experience in the fields of welding and thermal forming. This is done in 17 presentations about the prediction and control of welding distortions, 17 presentations about thermal forming and 3 about the coupling of both processes coming from scientific researchers as well as industrial users. Furthermore, 4 presentations from adjacent fields will complete this workshop. Knowledge on temperature and microstructure dependent material properties, heating strategies and strategies to control (de-)formations as well as experience in experimental methods or modelling are discussed. In this context, we thank the International Advisory Committee for their support in attracting contributions. Furthermore, thanks should be extended to our sponsors and supporters especially the DVS (German Welding Society), IIW (International Institute of Welding), HansePhotonik (Kompentenznetz Optische Technologien) and the SFB 570 (Collaborative Research Center "Distortion Engineering"). Finally, we are grateful for Ms Heike Weers' help, who has assembled all the papers of the proceedings, organized the registration affairs and managed thousands of little, but important things associated with the IWOTE.