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Tailored steel solutions to:
save weight, reduce cost, improve material utilization and consolidate parts.

How it all began

Monroe Facility Aerial
"TWB is committed to create value by providing global solutions to our customers through people, trust and technology"

— Christian Dohr, President and CEO

TWB Company LLC was formed in 1992 as a joint venture between Thyssen Stahl AG and Worthington Industries. Thyssen developed the laser welding of automotive body panels in the early 1980’s and Worthington is a leading steel processor in North America. TWB has largely developed the tailor welded blank market in North America since it’s inception and is currently the leading manufacturer of tailor welded products in North America. TWB has 5 North American facilities that support JIT and local production and services our customers. In addition, our parent company ThyssenKrupp Steel has 12 global facilities throughout Europe and Asia that TWB has leveraged for technological and customer support. TWB and ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks is the largest global tailored welded blank company in the world.

Tailor Welded Blanks for weight and cost reduction

Tailor welded blanks have evolved from same gauge steel sheets welded together to different thickness and/or strengths that are joined together to consolidate stampings and achieve cost effective weight reduction. There are over 20 common automotive body parts that are laser welded today. The tailor welded blank is the link between high safety requirements and affordable weight reduction. Tailor welded products allow the combination of different steel grades and thicknesses exactly where they need to be. They are lighter, require less material and assist in consolidating production operations. The process has evolved continuously to the extent we have a large family of tailored products, which has expanded from blanks to tubes to tailor welded coils. In the past 15+ years TWB has developed these products into a key success factor for the automotive industry.

Advantages at a glance

  • Weight reduction
  • Cost reduction
  • Part consolidation
  • Lower capital cost – having only one part to stamp means one die set is needed and there is less assembly
  • Improved crash performance through the use of tailor welded products
  • Elimination of overlapping joints improves corrosion behavior
  • Optimized nesting provides optimum material utilization
  • Elimination of sealing compound provides improved recycling
  • Improved forming behavior for difficult forming parts
  • Improved dimensional variation with part consolidation


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