To decrease the car body weight and improve crash safety, tailor-welded blanks have been used for car body materials. In the past, little research had been conducted on the formability of the weld metal (WM). This study focuses on the bendability of the WM evaluated by the bending test. The main results are as follows. (1)The bendability of the laser-welded specimens was better than that of the plasma-welded specimens. (2) The bendability of the weld line (WL) was related to the homogeneity of the WM structure, and increased with increasing homogeneity. (3) The surface roughness of the WL has no effect on the bendability of the WL. (4) The deformation of the bent surface of the WL changed with the WL width, and the bendability increased as the WL narrowed because the bent surface showed increasing uniaxial stretching deformation.
