What is BIW ?

BIW-Body in White
In the Automotive Industry BIW (Body in White) is the common terminology used to mention the car sheet metal
welded structure (body shell).
In today's situation, automotive BIW is made of steel (various steel grade material -DP, DD, HDP etc) as well as
made of aluminium alloy (e.g. AUDI A8)
Sub assemblies like Under body, Body side Left Hand Side/Right Hand Side, Front End, Roof etc get welded
together by various metal joining process e.g. resistance spot welding, Laser welding, MIG welding to make
welded metal shell (Without Door, Trunk-lid / Tailgate) , Fender, Bonnet Center) called Body in White.
Automotive car shell made before painting is called Body in White.
BIW joinery decides the exterior and interior look of any car.
All the Interior Parts(Commonly used in Automotive) e.g Dashboard, Trim (Door Trim, Pillar Trims, Roof liner,
Seats are mounted on the BIW shell with the help of various brackets or nuts mounted on the BIW.
Exterior (Commonly used term in car industry) components e.g. Front Bumper, Rear Bumper, Fender LH/RH,
Side Mirrors are mounted on the BIW shell with the help of various brackets or mounting systems.
In car industry outer look defines the style. BIW sheet metal part shell defines overall car style.
In automotive industry Do you know who is linked with BIW?
Following professionals are linked
1) Product Designer/ Styling EngineerWho designs car profiles via sketch, prepares clay model.
Who makes concept vehicles for autoshow display.
Who makes concepts and present to Top Executives who design product strategy.
2) BIW product designer- R&D Engineers
Who design the sheet metal individual components as per the styling data.
Who brings the styling to reality via designing individual components in details.
Who decide the product specification.
Who decides no of spots as per the geometry and strength requirement
3) BIW process engineer Who plans the BIW weld shop layout .
Who decide the assembly sequence of sheet metal in discussion with die designer
Who decides no of stations required to join BIW panel /sub assemblies.
Who decides no of equipments as per the JPH (jobs per hour) requirement
4) Die Designer/ Tool designer Who decides the no of tools and process to make the sheet metal.
Who design the die for sheet metal component
5) BIW Fixture designer Engineer
Who works with product designer, process planner and die designer
Who decides or help product designer to decide the PLP.
Who designs spot welding fixture.
Who works with process planner to finalize the cycle time.
6) Body Shop Engineer
Who weld the panels/sub assembles to form sub assemblies/assemblies
7) Paint shop Engineer
Who is responsible to get the BIW painted as per the requirement
8) TCF Engineer
Who is responsible for assembly of other aggregates on BIW in TCF lines.
which are these aggregates -Seat, Interior trim, Engine, Exhaust System, Axle. Fender, Head lamp, tail lap and
all wiring harness.

BIW Fixture Design Guidelines for Young Engineers

Dear All,
Preparing BIW Welding Fixture Design and Detailing Guidelines for young Engineers who would like to make
there carrier in BIW
Intention of this blog to share the general information of BIW.
Blogger intention to make more awareness of BIW-BIW Weld Shop, Process Planning etc.

What is BIW?
Why it is called BIW?
What is Welding Fixture Design?
How to design the spot welding fixtutre
Which are the common terminology used in BIW welding fixture or Body shop?
Which software are used in these industries?
Which companies are giving BIW turnkey solutions?
Are you looking carrier in BIW fixture Design? In India or abroad.
Which are the Tier 1, Engineering service and OEM's who recruit BIW Engineers ?

Various companies where Engineer get job in BIW Welding Fixture Design
Companies in India
BIW welding jobs in Indian OEMs where fixture design and process engineering departments are there
1.
2.
3.
4.

www.tatamotors.com
Bharat Benz, Chennai
Renault Nissan, Chennai
GM, Halol-Talegaon

www.marutisuzuki.com
www.mahindra.com
Volvo Eicher Commerical Vehicle , Indore
Ford India Chennai
Force Motors, Pune
FIAT, Pune
Force Motors

Tier 1-BIW Welding spot welding fixture/Arc welding Fixture design suppliers from India
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

www.comau.com- Pune
Tata Automation Ltd (TAL), Pune
Dran Classic, Pune
Lean Automation, Pune
ABB, Bangalore
Faith Automation Systems & Tooling Pvt Ltd, Pune
Toolcon, Pune

Wooshin India, Pune India

Thyssenkrupp India , Pune
Valiant TMS , Pune
Hirotec, Coimbatore
Neel-Metal Products Ltd, Gurgaon
Rhytemsoft, Nashik
L&T , Baroda

Engineering Service companies in India

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

EDAG Engineering and Design, Gurgaon

Expert, Gurgaon
L& T Engineering Service, Baroda
Onward Technologies, Pune
Augen, Bangalore
ENSCI, Bangalore
RLE , Bangalore
Moldtek, Hydrabad
Mercedes Benz Technical Center, Bangalore
COSMA-Magna, Gurgaon
Moldtek, Hydrabad
Quest Global , Bangalore

Worldwide BIW Line Builders/ Design Houses

1) KUKA, Augsburg,Germany
3) Thyssenkrupp Nothelfer, Germany
5) Wooshin, Korea
7) Genix, Korea
9) EBZ, Germany
11) HLS Autotechnik, Augsburg Germany
13) Design South Africa
15) KUKA,USA

EBZ, Gurgaon
TATA Technologies, Pune
Hema Engineering , Pune
Ranal Engineering Services, Bangalore
3D CAD, Bangalore
Geometric Software- Engineering Services, Bangalore
Group of Engineers, Hydrabad
General Motors Technical Center, Bangalore
TCS, Pune
Vehma Cosma Bangalore
Creative Synergies, Bangalore-Pune
Tecosim, Bangalore-Pune

3) Comau, Italy
4) EDAG-FFT, Fulda, Germany
6) Hokuto, Japan
8) ABB, China
10) Stafuen Engineering Germany
12) Ogihara, Japan, USA
14) Valinat-TMS, Austria- Canada

Volkswagen has their own tool shop in Germany.

AUDI Plannung is their process planning companyin Fulda and Augsburg in Germany.
www.audiplannung.de
Rolling Hemming Supplier
1) www.kuka-systems.com
3) www.comau.com
5) ABB China
7) Stafuen Engineering, Germany

2) www.edag.de
4) Wooshin Korea
6) EBZ Germany
8)Thyssenkrup Germany

Software used for BIW Spot and MIG Welding Fixture design
Various software used for BIW Fixture design.
1) CATIA v5
2) UG
3) Fides
4) Autocad
5)SolidEdge (Very few)
Pro-E used by many organization working for MIG welding fixture design
Car Lines in BIW
Why is CAR line?
Why BIW Product designer and BIW tool designer always refer carlines?
Automotive sheet metal components are designed in CAD (Computer added Design ) software e.g. CATIAv4-v5,
UG, ProE, Ideas,
In any CAD tool there is default axis system X,Y,Z.
Lets us consider if every designer starts design of BIW Door Assembly part a default axis system, then it will be
difficult to assembly or position the part with respect to each other.
Due to avoid this issue. BIW car panel are designed with reference to CAR axis means at their original position
of finally built car.
Reference axis system of the software is used for design of the various features of the parts (e.g. hole, fillet,
threads,) To correlate the position of all the automotive components during the final assembly the axis system of
the vehicle is used. Most of the time vehicle axis system and software axis system is same. e.g. In most of
European OEM X axis represents length of the vehicle Y axis represents width of the vehicle Z axis presents
height of the vehicle. Y axis is considered to be located at front axle. All BIW welding fixtures are designed with
reference to car line
3-2-1 Principle
3-2-1 Principle:
In the automotive tooling industry you will hardly get any designer who does not know 3-2-1 principle.
If the any material e.g steel block to be machined using milling machine.
Operator will use the various clamp to clamp the job to withstand the cutting force.
Ideally 3-2-1 principle is used to locate the job .
What 3 means ?
What 2 mean ?
What 1 mean?
Simple they represent the directions.
Any part which has to be fixed during welding or during machining process has to be fixed. with this
principle. Every object is having 6 degrees of freedom.
1) Translational movement along X -axis
2) Translational movement along Y-axis
3) Translational movement along Z-Axis
4) Rotational movement along X -axis
5) Rotational movement along Y-axis
6) Rotational movement along Z-Axis
Without 3-2-1 principle its very difficult for the BIW product engineer, BIW process engineer or BIW fixture
design engineers to have same clamping and location scheme.
Any geometry is fixed or hold in position with the 3-2-1 principle. To restrict it transverse motion in X, Y and Z
direction and rotational movement in X,Yand Z direction object will be held in position with 3-2-1 principle.

e.g.: Consider a solid cube lying on a XY Plane and Z is height.

3 Points in Z direction defines the plane and restrict it movement along Z and rotation along X and Y.
2 Points in X direction restrict its movement in X and rotation along Z.
1 Point in Y restricts its movement in Y.
This fundamental is used during the automotive body component design and welding tool design for its
manufacturing.
Question1: Why 3 points are required to rest any component. Answer: Basic mathematics.
Question 2: How many points are required to define a Plane?
Answer: 3 Points required to define any plane.
ax+by+cz=d (Equation of a Plane). Minimum 3 points are required to define a plane.
Why minimum shim size of 0.5 mm in BIW (Body in White) fixture design?
Process Enginner , BIW (Body in White) Fixture designer and Body shop Maintenance Enginner always think ,
why in the fixture fixture the minimum shim size is of 0.5mm?
Answer is not with them. Then how knows it. A product designer who has designed all these sheet metal
components. Normally the sheet metal profile tolerance is of 0.5mm in automotive components.
Which defines the minum adjustment to be to be done while setting biw welding fixture
Types of Spot Welding Guns
IT- Integral Transformer
Non-IT- Transfomer is separate from gun body.
MFDC- Medium Frequency DC Gun.
Depending upon the application IT and NON IT Guns are selected.
It has been observed that for underbody welding application where floor width is more it is better to used Non IT
gun.
In ndrbody guns arm lengh is longer due to spot distance .Due to this weight increase and it is better to use NON
IT gun. Transformer is mounted/hanged on top.
Many OEM not preferring MFDC guns now adays. MFDC are costlier
Hole-Slot or Hole -Hole Strategy -Details needed
Hole-Slot or Hole -Hole Strategy. Generally all BIW sheet metal component designer use hole and slot strategy
or Hole -Hole (diamond pin in second hole) for location of a panel. Hole acts as 4 way location and slot acts as 2
way location. I just read thatdiscussion going on to have hole -hole location strategy for the panel location to
have better dimension control. Who has studied both the schemes on similar size components can share their
experience. Perosnally I have worked on hole - slot or hole -hole(but with diamond shape pin).
Various Toggle clamp make used in BIW fixture design
Various companies who supply toggle clamps for BIW welding application
1) www.tunker.com
2)www.destaco.com
3) www.kakuto.com
4) www.smc.com
5) www.festo.com
6) www.uinver.com
7) www.sandfield.com
8) www.steelsmith.com There are many more.

Simulation Software used in BIW welding simulation

Various Software used BIW Sheet Welding Fixture Design
1) Robcad- Product from Siemens
2) Process Simulate- Product from Siemens
3) IGRIP
4) Delmia -Product from Dassult
Spot Welding Gun Manufacturer
Spot Welding Gun Manufacturer
Robotic Welding Gun Manufacturer
1) ARO- France
2) Nimak- Germany
3) FTS- France
4) Obara- Japan
5) Tecna- Italy
6) Comau- Italy
7) Gerbi & Fase

Manual Gun Manufacturer

Gun Manufacturer from India

1) ARO- France
2) Nimak- Germany
3) FTS- France
4) Obara- Japan
5) Tecna- Italy
6) Comau- Italy
7) Gerbi & Fase

1) Arm Welders
2) Nash
3) Mechelonic Welder
4) Mechelonic Engineer

Material used for various BIW welding fixture items

Sr. No BIW welding fixture item
1

3
4

Material
C45
Clamp Block/Mylar
SAE4140
UHMW
Nylon66
Skin Panel Clamp Block/Mylar PP
Teflon (polytetrafluroethylene
(PTFE).
16MnCr5
Locating Pin
20MnCr5
SAE 8620

Stopper Block

6
7

Dump unit shaft

Weld part- Different
plateswelded together

Rough Locator

Remark
NAAMS std

50-60 Shore D
45-55HRC
45-55HRC
58-62HRC

Case Hardened
Case Hardened
GM Standard

Flame Hardness :55-60

HRC

NAAMS std

C45
SAE1060

Cover Plates

Hardness
40-50HRC

Circa
HRCA
MS
SAE 8620
SAE1020

NAAMS std

St 37-2

DIN Standards

St 52-3
Mild Steel
St37-2
St37-2K

DIN Standards

K- stands for coating

NAAMS - BIW Standards formed by three leading Automotive companies in USA

Someone working for GM, Chrysler and Ford BIW welding fixture design requirement might have came across
NAAMS standards.
What is NAAMS standards?
Please refer the web portals to get more details about the standards.
http://www.naamsstandards.org/

Many of the Global automotive as well BIW weld line builder are using NAAMS standards.
Standards are used to reduce the design time, manufacturing time, assembly time and maintenance cost as
Standards can kept as stock items.
You might be having question whether standards reduces cost or increase cost.
My views
1) In all the developed countries human per cost is very high. Once standard part is designed can be used at
multiple location, e.g, pin retainer, Riser, Shims, L blocks
2) Reduces error- To design every time new part consumes effort and mistake may happen as it needs design
modelling and 2D drawing. Once standard is designed manufacturing error is reduced for that part.
3) Easily replacement if standards part broken down.
BIW Welding Fixture Domain Terminology and its definition
BIW-Body in White
1. Spot Welding- It's a type of resistance welding .2/3 sheet metals are joined together
2. Takt Time- Average time needed to meet the customer demand.Takt Time=Net time available / Demand(
customer requirement of no of units)
3. Cycle Time-Time required to execute the task
4. 2 Metal Spot- Resistance spot welding to join sheet 2 metal parts
5. 3 Metal Spot- Resistance spot welding to join sheet 3 metal parts
6. Car lines- To represent to position of biw car parts,welding fixture and its unit assemblies with its
individual parts (e.g.mylars) in 2D drawings, their respective positions are shown with reference to
(X=0,Y=0,Z=0)positions. In short its shows in 2D XY,YZ or XZ coordinate position of BIW welding fixture
parts or assemblies with reference to origin X=0,Y=0,Z=0
7. Mylar: Called as Rest or Clamp block which is used for holding 2/3 BIW sheet metal parts.Mylars are
also called NC blocks. In German Mylars called as counter stein.
8. PLP- Principle Location point
9. RPS- Reference Punkt System. Same as PLP
10. Location Round Pin- Pin used to location BIW sheet metal parts.Also called way pin
11. Diamond Pin- Pin having diamond shape in top view.Used to restrict only 2 direction.Mostly referred as 2
way pin.
12. Shim solid- Generally for the Mylar and Locating pin adjustment solid plate of 5 mm thk with various size
is used. Generally solid shim of 2 slot, 3 slot or 4 slot.
13. Shim Pack - Generally for the Mylar and Locating pin adjustment solid shim pack is used. 5 mm thk shim
pack has various option of 0.5mm x2, 1mmx2, 2mmx1 makes shim pack. Shim is of 2 slot/ hole, 3
slot/hole or 4 slot/hole
How many resistance welding spots are generally done to weld BIW of a car?
Someone will ask - How many spot xxx car is having? This depends upon many parameters. 1) Type of carSedan, Estate, Limousine (Size of the car)etc 2) No of sheet metal parts assemblies used to make the shell 3)
Metal type used - Steel(alloy), Aluminium to form various sub assemblies. If Aluminium is used for BIW panels
then there will be less resistance welding spots.As aluminium panels will be riveted. I heard that no of spots in a
car may vary from 3500 to 5500 Nos depending upon various parameters. One thing is sure if you reduce spot
you will be able to save electric power. Will it reduce the cost of the vehicle? Not sure. As you eliminate spot,
there might be use of aluminium or some composite material. To use such material needs sophisticated
technology to form the shape to attain the strength. To use non ferrous metal different manufacturing approach
is needed.
Resistance Welding Spot Category A,B,C
How many type of BIW Spot Categories are there in general? or Do have any Idea about BIW Resistance
welding spot categories.
Generally there are 3 types.
Which are these types?
Category A Category B Category C
How they are defined?
Category A- Joint in case of failure will have human life threat.
Category B- Joint in case of failure will be have impact of unusable product (product will not serve the intended

purpose).
Category C- Joint in case of failure will have little impact on the usability of the product.
Role of Pneumatic/ Hydraulics in BIW welding fixture design
Pneumatic system System operated with Air.
Open loop system
Generally used for low pressure
Generally deliver es less force compared to hydraulic system
Cheaper compared to hydraulic for basic cost. But compressor running cost is more
Hydraulic system System operated with fluid- oil.
Closed loop system
High pressure system
Generally used for heavy force delivery
Initial cost is high
More expensive
Pneumatic system is mostly preferred over hydraulic system in BIW welding fixture.
All toggle clamp , pin cylinder, slides are operated via pneumatic.
Generally cylinder are designed to operate max pressure 12-13 bar. As it expensive and difficult to maintain 1012 bar in shop floor it is preferred to do design pneumatic systems at 6 bar pressure
BIW Spot welding Robot Manufacturer
Do you know Global BIW Welding Robot Supplier
1. ABB , Sweden
2. Motomann, Japan
3. Kawasaki, Japan

KUKA, Germany
COMAU, Italy
Yamaha, Japan

FANUC, Japan
Nachi Fujikoshi Corp. Japan
Mitsubishi, Japan

MIG Welding Gun / Equipment Suppliers

What is MIG?
Metal Inert Gas Welding.
Mostly used in automotive for Welding of Chassis components.
MIG Welding Gun and Equipment Suppliers.
1) Lincoln
2) Kemppi
3) Ador
From India
1) Mogora

Riveting/ Clinching joining

Rivet joining:
Will it be replacement to spot or MIG welding?
I am not expert to comment on it.
But definitely in some application rivet joining is getting used.
e.g. Aluminium panel joining.
Many German OEM are using rivet joining method for aluminium panel joining.
Clinching :
Few BIW components are getting joined together with clinching process where hydraulic press are used with
specially designed tools which has something gun type shape and specially designed clinching dies.
Please refer to few sites to understand the method.
www.toxcpressotechnik.com
Importance of Iron Carbon Diagram in BIW Industry
Iron Carbon Diagram Any importance in BIW domain
Most of Engineer working in BIW domain either BIW Product designer, BIW die designer, BIW fixture designer,
BIW process designer , BIW pain shop Engineer, BIW Weld shop engineer will mention Metallurgy was not my

area of interest during academics

Does Iron Carbon Diagram has some importance in carrier of Engineer who works in BIW Domain?
I will say definitely Yes.
To be very honest with all of you. I never understood Iron Carob Diagram during college.
But in carrier I started learning it once again.
BIW Engineer every now and then deals with sheet metal panel made of various steel grades.
BIW welding engineer deals with so many structural steel materials to make various welding fixture
components.
BIW die designer has to deal with various steel grade for BIW panel die design.
BIW product designer has to know various steel materials to select material during panel design
BIW weld shop Engineer has to look every time weld parameter for sheet metal
BIW process Engineer has to select to weld parameter as per type and thk.of sheet metal.