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Automobile manufacturers have experienced increasing consumer and regulatory pressure to improve fuel efficiency and crashworthiness while simultaneously decreasing overall vehicle body weight. As such, the use of advanced high strength steels (AHSS) in body panels and other structural elements is becoming more and more prevalent because these advanced materials present an economical and elegant solution to the problem. To ensure the quality and safety of AHSS components, residual stress (RS) specifications (among others) have been introduced with the intent to minimize failures experienced both in the field and during production. Moreover, when welding processes are applied to AHSS components, the localized loss of ductility in combination with tensile RS can result in localized cracking, distortion, and/or failures.