Optimized Decision-Making in Joining Selection by Alternative-Based Material and Design-Oriented Changes

Abstract

Today, and as never before, multi-material systems are in the spotlight of technically advanced products (e.g., automotive industry) due to their far-reaching potentials with regard to weight, cost and resource savings. However, these structural and functional improvements pose a great challenge for its cross-component joining options, which have only been partly addressed systematically in scientific research so far. Thus, this contribution presents an alternative-based material and design-oriented approach for an optimized decision-making in a sustainable joining selection. Herein, the authors highlight the complexity in the selection of an optimum joining technology, on the one hand, and the potential analysis of proposed, sustainable-driven changes within the key premises of material (cluster with similar mechanical but partly different technological properties) and design (catalogs with minor geometrical advices, e.g., flange position) to fulfill a holistically best evaluated systems design, on the other hand.