Geometrical distortions occur while welding, but the understanding of how and why they occur and how to control them is limited. The relation between the weld width, weld metal volume, total energy input, width of hard zone and distortions when laser welding three different thin sheet steels with varying strength has therefore been studied. Weld metal volume and total energy input show a good correlation with distortion for one steel at a time. The best correlation with the when including all three steel grades was the width of the hard zone composed of weld metal and the martensitic area in the heat affected zone. © 2017 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.