Liquid Metal Embrittlement

In automotive manufacturing, ensuring the durability and safety of vehicle welds is essential. With Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS) as a standard for enhancing vehicle performance, understanding and mitigating Liquid Metal Embrittlement (LME) – which can create surface cracks in welded joints – is critical.

The automotive parts spot welding process by robotic system. The high technology automobile assembly line by automatic system.

In 2017, WorldAutoSteel launched a three-year technical research project with leading engineering institutions Laboratory of Materials and Joining Technology (LWF) at Paderborn University in Germany, the Institute de Soudure in Yutz, France, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK) in Berlin to investigate LME by understanding root causes and how to mitigate its effects. Results, published in a 2020 report, revealed that when using standard welding techniques and equipment, the occurrence of liquid metal embrittlement was shown to be both highly unlikely and extremely low risk in the AHSS materials tested.

A follow-on report was published in 2024. The Phase 2 LME Component Study, offers insights into mitigating LME in real-world applications. Conducted in collaboration with LWF and Fraunhofer, the study investigates whether solutions developed from academic samples can be used in real parts and whether LME presents any unique characteristics in full components compared to isolated tests.

Download the Phase 1 Report (2020)

Download the Phase 2 Report (2024)