Magna International Inc.

Steven Reece Falter

John Richard Potocki

William Andrew Kokosza

A method for conditioning a welded vehicle body assembly is provided. The method includes welding the vehicle body member to at least one additional vehicle body member together to form the welded vehicle body assembly, the welded vehicle body assembly includes a weld area; and laser annealing a weld heat affected zone adjacent to the weld area to soften material in the weld heat affected zone.

System for conditioning material using a laser and method thereof

The method includes the step of positioning the sheets in an at least partially overlapping relationship. The method continues with the step of inserting a rivet that has a height through an overlapping area of the sheets. The method proceeds with the step of, with the rivet at a temperature in the range of 15-30&#xb0; Celsius, collapsing the rivet between a pair of ramming surfaces to shorten the rivet and partially expand the rivet outwardly to lock the rivet with the sheets. The entire method results in a very strong connection between the sheets and with a great durability at a low cost.

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Lake Orion, MI, United States of America

Steven Reece Falter