Integration of an Assessment Methodology for the Selection of Joining Technologies in Lightweight Engineering

Abstract The automotive sector is facing various challenges such as stricter environmental regulations for more sustainable products and processes or rising production costs. The resulting trend to lightweight engineering is leading to an increasing variety of materials, on the one hand. On the other hand, the specific characteristics of the individual materials are presenting restrictions for joining technologies. These restrictions are leading to a growing diversity of joining technologies and to a lack of transparency in regards to the impact of monetary (economic) and non-monetary (technological and ecological) criteria. To date, the selection of the optimum joining technology in lightweight engineering is based on the expertise of the developer. A standardized procedure for the assessment and selection of joining technologies does not exist. Hence, a statement about the potential of a technology cannot be made due to the non-transparency of its overall expenditure and benefit for individual applications. The extant literature presents several approaches for the assessment of joining technologies, mostly focusing on monetary criteria. However, none of the models discusses the difficulty of the limited data availability of product and process information in the early stage of product development in lightweight engineering. An essential part of this contribution is the consolidation of monetary and non-monetary criteria and integrating the research into the product development process for the assessment and selection of joining technologies. For this purpose, an assessment portfolio has been developed, which considers, besides monetary and non-monetary criteria also the strategic preferences of a developer to allow an optimized and sustainable decision-making of joining technologies in the early stage of the product development in lightweight engineering.