Method for joining axle components

A method of joining two vehicle axle housing components (20,32) made from the same or dissimilar materials includes providing a first axle housing component (20,32), and providing a second axle housing component (20,32) made from a material which is same/dissimilar to the material used to make the first axle housing component (20,32), where one of the first and second axle housing components is a metallic component made of a metallic material. A portion of one of the first and second axle housing components is positioned within a portion of the other of the axle housing components in an overlapping manner, thereby forming an overlapping portion. A metallic band (36) may be disposed around the overlapping portion. An inductor (62,64) is positioned around the overlapping portion. The inductor is energized to generate a magnetic field for collapsing at least one of the overlapping portion and the metallic band (36) at a velocity sufficient to magnetic pulse weld the metallic component to each other, thereby securing the first and second axle housing components (20,32) together.