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Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) is widely employed for joining relatively thick sheet steels in automotive body-in-white structures and frames. The GMAW process is very flexible for various joint geometries and has relatively high welding speed. However, fatigue failures can occur at welded joints subjected to various types of loads. Thus, vehicle design engineers need to understand the fatigue characteristics of welded joints produced by GMAW. Currently, automotive structures employ various advanced high strength steels (AHSS) such as dual-phase (DP) and transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels to produce lighter vehicle structures with improved safety performance and fuel economy, and reduced harmful emissions. Relatively thick gages of AHSS are commonly joined to conventional high strength steels and/or mild steels using GMAW in current body-in-white structures and frames.

In the North American automotive industry, various advanced high strength steels (AHSS) are used to lighten vehicle structures, improve safety performance and fuel economy, and reduce harmful emissions. Relatively thick gages of AHSS are commonly joined to conventional high strength steels and/or mild steels using Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) in the current generation body-in-white structures. Additionally, fatigue failures are most likely to occur at joints subjected to a variety of different loadings. It is therefore critical that automotive engineers need to understand the fatigue characteristics of welded joints. The Sheet Steel Fatigue Committee of the Auto/Steel Partnership (A/S-P) completed a comprehensive fatigue study on GMAW joints of both AHSS and conventional sheet steels including: DP590 GA, SAE 1008, HSLA HR 420, DP 600 HR, Boron, DQSK, TRIP 780 GI, and DP780 GI steels.

The hole piercing process is a simple but important task in manufacturing processes. The quality requirement of the pierced hole varies between different applications. It can be either the size or the edge quality of the hole. Furthermore, the pierced hole is often subject to a secondary forming process, in which the edge stretchability is of a main concern. The recently developed advanced high strength steels (AHSS) and ultra high strength steels (UHSS) have been widely used for vehicle weight reduction and safety performance improvements. Due to the higher strength nature of these specially developed sheet steels, the hole piercing conditions are more extreme and challenging, and the quality of the pierced hole can be critical due to their relatively lower edge stretching limits than those for the conventional low and medium strength steels. The stretchability of the as-sheared edge inside the hole can be influenced by the material property, die condition and processing parameters.