• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

The use of materials for modern lightweight auto-bodies is becoming more complex than hitherto assemblies. The high strength materials nowadays frequently used for more specific fields such as the front and rear sub frames, seat belts and seats are mounted to the assembled body structure using bolt joints. It is desirable to use nuts attached to the assembled sheets by projection welding to decrease the number of loose parts which improves the quality. In this study, nut projection welding was carried out between a nut of both boron steel and carbon steel and ultra-high strength hot-stamped steel sheets. Then, the joints were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscope. The mechanical properties of the joints were evaluated by microhardness measurements and pullout tests. An indigenously designed sample fixture set-up was used for the pull-out tests to induce a tensile load in the weld. The fractography analysis revealed the dominant interfacial fracture between boron steel nut weld which is related to the shrinkage cavity and small size fusion zone. A non-interfacial fracture was observed in carbon steel nut weld, the lower hardness of HAZ caused the initiation of failure and allowed the pull-out failure which have higher in tensile strengths and superior weldability. Hence, the fracture load and failure mode characteristics can be considered as an indication of the weldability of materials in nut projection welding.