Automated welding program for full body-in-white finite element assembly

Abstract

An automated computer modeling system generates a welded finite element model of a vehicle body. The modeling system includes a projection module for projecting predefined weld locations onto a finite element mesh representing surface data for the vehicle body such that a modified finite element mesh is generated. A welding module automatically generates assigned weld elements for the modified finite element mesh by determining the nearest node on each part with respect to the predefined weld locations and welding the parts together. The assigned weld elements and the modified finite element mesh therefore define the welded finite element model of the vehicle body. An executable file is used to perform projection functions as well as welding functions. The projection module incorporates a finite element processor to generate the modified FE mesh. The weld data and the surface data from the FE mesh are organized in a manner that allows the predefined weld locations to be linked with the node locations for each part. Automation of the projection and welding processes results in substantial cost savings due to reduced man-hours.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.