Special Issue: Forming and Joining of Lightweight and Multimaterial Systems

Abstract

This special issue of the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering is devoted to the forming of lightweight materials and the joining of multimaterial systems. For example, in the case of the automotive industry, societal needs and government regulations require vehicles that are safer and also have a reduced impact upon the environment, as measured by CO2 gas emissions. This has led to electrification of the powertrain systems, but has also driven significant initiatives in the mass reduction of emissions through judicious use of an everbroadening range of lightweight materials—and it has been the driving force for a continuous, synergistic development of not only novel alloys (advanced highstrength steels, aluminum, magnesium, composites) but also of the manufacturing processes used to form and join lightweight components. Moreover, the automotive industry appears to be migrating to a strategy of mixedmaterial use, or using the most appropriate material for a given application, which leads to vehicle structures with an integrated construction of dissimilar materials. This, in turn, creates a dire need for forming technologies that can achieve the same aggressive product designs using the new, advanced, lightweight materials applied with conventional lowC steels, as well as new joining technologies for dissimilar materials that can be seamlessly integrated into existing production facilities.