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Tailor welded blanks provide significant benefits to the automotive industry in terms of reduced production or fabrication costs and improved performance. In this study, a systematic approach using Design of Experiments (DOE) methods was adopted to evaluate the crashworthiness performance of rectangular section beams made from various tailor welded blanks. A resolution IV design with thirty two observations was chosen for the test in order to understand the main effects as well as the two-factor interactions. Three types of welding technologies, resistance spot welding, mash-seam welding and laser welding, were used to join materials with different strengths, thicknesses, and surface treatments. Both aluminum-killed drawing-quality (AKDQ) and high strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels were selected for comparison. There were thirty two axial impact tests and thirty two bending impact tests.