A tailor welded blank is a sheet-metal blank made by joining two or more pieces of different thickness, grade or coating before stamping, typically by laser or resistance welding. In this patent dataset the claims cluster around the joint itself — weld line position, thickness transition across the joint, and joint strength after forming — rather than the stamping step alone. Records combine a welding-process class (B23K) with a vehicle-body or sheet-forming class (B62D, B21D), reflecting that most patents cover the joining method as applied to a specific automotive part.

Filing in this scope is concentrated: the top-ranked assignee alone accounts for 120 of the 247 records, and the top five combined hold 66.0% of everything published. Steel producers dominate the leader group rather than automakers directly, which fits the pattern of steelmakers patenting the blank-production process and licensing or supplying it into vehicle assembly. The ranking covers 49 companies in total, with a steep drop after the top ten filers, who together hold 81.0% of records.

Filing peaked in 2017 at 37 records and has since eased. On the years that can be treated as complete, the count moved from 8 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a -25% change over that span. The most recent one to two years in the chart will still revise upward because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so a slow-looking 2025 or 2026 does not by itself mean filing has stopped.