OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2018 / OEM&Supplier Edition 2/2018

142 In particular, multi-material car body design is characterised by a large number of materials used. In addition to various types of steel and aluminium, especially state-of-the-art, hot- formed boron steels, such as Usibor ® from Arcelor Mittal, should be mentioned, as they are used for structural and safety components in vehicles. These steel types provide ex- cellent crash resistance and a weight saving potential between approx. 30% and 50%, compared to common cold-formed steel grades. The EJOWELD ® technology An innovative option for joining different ma- terials and semi-finished products is the so- called friction element welding which is mar- keted by the specialist in joining techniques EJOT under the brand EJOWELD ® . This innova- tion offers the possibility of joining multi- material designs, in particular lightweight materials and ultra-high strength steels, with a friction welding fastener setting tool suitable for robot integration. The characteristic feature of the EJOWELD ® technique is a rotating friction element sub- jected to axial force, which first penetrates the light metal component and is subsequently welded to the underlying super-high-strength component. The welding results from the fric- tion-induced heat input and the high surface pressure on the joint. No pre-holes are necessary for this process, and high- strength and high-resistant spot joints are created. EJOWELD ® provides for a fast, automated, high-strength and reproducible joining process, even without pre-treat- ment of the parts. The EJOT friction element welding applica- tion is designed as a complete system compris- EJOWELD ® Friction Element Welding Innovative joining technology for the automotive hybrid and lightweight construction By Sebastian Schrodt, Head of Sales EJOWELD, EJOT GmbH & Co. KG, Business Unit EJOWELD The range of potential applications for lightweight materials has continuously increased over the last few years. Especially in the automotive industry, there are more and more applications for lightweight materials since a signifi- cant reduction of CO 2 emissions can only be achieved by way of considerable weight reductions in vehicle design. For this reason, lightweight and hybrid design solutions are now integrated into nearly all components of future vehicles. The areas highlighted in red show typical fields of application of ultra-high strength steels and aluminium in body in white manufacture which are joined by way of the reliable EJOWELD ® friction element welding technology. Maximum flexibility thanks to modular equipment Lightweight