Patent ID: 9604311
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: B23K,Y10T

Claim:
1. A method of making a welded blank assembly, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a first sheet metal piece having a thickness (T (b) arranging the first and second sheet metal pieces together at the edge region; (c) forming a weld joint between the first and second sheet metal pieces at the edge region, wherein the weld joint is at least partially located in the weld notch and includes material from the edge region but is substantially free of material from both the coating material layer and the intermediate material layer, and the weld joint is formed from a weld pool that includes molten material from the exposed base material layer of the at least one sheet metal piece that solidifies with the other sheet metal piece; and (d) providing additional material to a weld region to form a protective coating once the weld joint is formed, wherein the protective coating covers at least a portion of the weld joint and the exposed base material layer within the weld notch, and the additional material includes a corrosion-resistant material that is provided to protect at least a portion of the weld region from oxidation during a subsequent heat treating and/or hot forming process so that the portion of the weld region has a higher resistance to corrosion than the base material layer.