Joining methods in car body construction

Growing requirements from customers for quality and safety, also strictive emissions limits caused for automobile manufacturers researching for new solutions and materials. The development of the automotive market is associated with the enrichment of societies and, consequently, increased demands. Modern production systems meet needs of corporations. However, automation and robotization of traditional production methods or assembly are not always sufficient [4]. In order to improve the quality of products and reduce costs at the same time, it is very important to carefully analyze each stage of production. The key step in designing a new car model to enter the market is choosing the right method to join the elements into a whole body. The random car body consists of 4,000 spot welds, 13 meters of welds, 90 meters of glue [9]. Most of the car body elements are sheet metal with a thickness of less than three millimeters. The aim of the study to present various methods of joining car body parts and to compare their strength in an analytical way and using the finite element method. Particular attention has been given to the clinching, which becomes a cheaper and more flexible alternative to resistance spot welding.