• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.402-407
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• 2002

Laminate tooling process is a fast and simple method to make metal tools directly for various molding processes such as injection molding in rapid prototyping field. Metal sheets are usually cut, stacked, aligned and joined with brazing or soldering. Through the joining process, all of the metal sheet layers should be rigidly joined. When joining process parameters are not appropriate, there would be defects in the layers. Among various types of defects, non-bonded gaps of the tool surface are of great importance, because they directly affect the surface quality and dimensional accuracy of the final products. If a laminate tool with defects has to be abandoned, it could lead to great loss of time and cost. Therefore a repair method for non-bonded gaps of the surface is essential and has important meaning for rapid prototyping. In this study, a rapid laminate tooling system composed of a CO2 laser, a furnace, and a milling machine was developed. Metal sheets were joined by furnace brazing, dip soldering and adhesive bonding. Joined laminate tools were machined by a high-speed milling machine to improve surface quality. Also, repair brazing and soldering methods of the laminates using the $CO_2$ laser system have been investigated. ill laser repair process, the beam duration, beam power and beam profile were of great importance, and their effects were simulated by [mite element methods. The simulation results were compared with the experimental ones, and optimal parameters for laser repair process were investigated.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.348-355
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• 2017

In recent years, dissimilar materials such as aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and advanced high strength steel are widely used in automotive body due to environment concerns and fuel consumption. Therefore, joining technology is important for assembling components made of dissimilar materials. In this study, friction stir hole clinching (FSHC) was proposed as a new mechanical joining method to join dissimilar materials. This process stirs and heats the upper sheet, forming mechanical interlocking with the lower sheet. The feasibility of this FSHC process was verified by comparing cross-section of joint in FSHC and hole clinching process under the same processing condition. Taguchi method was also applied to the FSHC process to estimate the effect of process parameters on joint strength and obtain optimal combination of process parameters. Joint strength of FSHC with optimal process condition was compared to that of FSHC with initial process condition as well as that of hole clinching with optimal process condition. Results showed that the FSHC process was useful for joining dissimilar materials, even if the formability of materials was low.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.67-72
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• 2009

In this paper, arc characteristics of V groove joints using pulsed GMA welding were found out. The bevel angles of $22.5^{\circ}$ and $30.0^{\circ}$ were chose to make the V groove configuration with the groove angles of $45^{\circ}$ and $60.0^{\circ}$, respectively. In the experiment, the arc current waveform measurement and the high speed photography were taken to investigate the arc characteristics for a single-beveled asymmetric workpiece. Consequently, the welding current was changed abnormally around the edge of groove. As the arc moved close to the groove face, the welding current was increased rapidly because the welding arc was affected by the inclined surface. Also the welding current waveforms were measured for the double-sided symmetric workpiece to verify the previous measurements for the single-beveled workpiece, and similar current waveforms were found.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.139-144
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• 2018

Long Fiber-reinforced composites have advantages of excellent production efficiency and formability of complex shapes compared to conventional continuous fiber reinforced composite materials. However, if we need to make complicated composite shapes or to assemble parts made of different materials, a variety of joining methods are needed. In general, long fiber prepreg sheet (LFPS) contains mold release agent to facilitate demolding after thermoforming. Therefore, mechanical fastening is required in addition to the adhesive bonding to get proper joining strength. In this study, we proposed a stainless steel insert for co-cure bonding which cures LFPS and bonds the stainless steel insert through thermoforming process. The wing of the insert which is spread during the thermoforming process induces adhesion and mechanical wedging effect and serves as a hook to resist the pulling force. The burn-out method was used to confirm the unfolded state of the stainless steel insert wings inserted into the composite material. The static pull-out test was performed to quantitatively evaluate the joining strength. From these experimental results, the condition which guarantees the most appropriate joining strength was derived.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.257-264
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• 2020

This paper is concerned with the influence of the plastic property of the rivet on the numerical prediction of the Self-Piercing Rivet (SPR) Joining. In order to predict the plastic property of the rivet, a ring compression specimen was directly fabricated from the rivet used for the mechanical joining of dissimilar materials, and the FE analysis together with the ring compression test was iteratively carried out by changing the plastic property of the rivet. For reliable FE analysis, a friction coefficient was estimated based on a friction calibration curve, measuring the reductions in inner diameter and height of the ring specimen after the compression test. From each simulation result, the force-displacement curves were then compared from each other so as to obtain the rivet plastic property that shows good agreement with the experimental result. The SPR joining between GA590 1.0t and Al5052 2.0t was conducted, and the numerical prediction was performed with the use of the plastic property evaluated based on the inverse analysis and the one referred from Mori et al. [11]. Comparison of the experiment and the numerical predictions in terms of the interlock and bottom thickness revealed that the reliable evaluation of the plastic property of the rivet is necessary for the trustworthy numerical prediction of the SPR joining.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.63-69
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• 2014

Dual laser heat sources were used for polymer based material joining. An infrared camera and thermocouple DAQ system were used to correlate the temperature distribution to computer simulation. A 50 degree tilted pre-heating laser source was acting as a heating source to promote the temperature to minimize thermal shock by the following a welding heat source. Based on the experimental result, the skin depth was empirically estimated for computer simulation. The offsets of 3mm, 5mm and 10mm split by weld and preheat were effectively used to control the temperature distribution for the optimal laser joining process. The closer offset resulted in an excessive melting or burning caused by sudden temperature rising. The laser power was split by 50%, 75% and 100% of the weld power, and the best results were found at 50% of preheating. To accurately simulate the physical laser beam absorption and joining optical properties were experimentally measured for the computer FEM simulation. The simulation results showed close correlation between theoretical and experimental results. The developed dual laser process is expected to increase productivity and minimize the cost for the final products.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.13-20
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• 2006

Resistance spot welding is widely used for joining sheet metals in the automotive manufacturing process. Recently, servo-gun is used to increase the productivity and precise control the acting force. However, force control mechanisms have not been investigated with servo-guns until now. In this paper, it is proved that servo-motor current is proportional to torque and by experiment, experimental equation between servo-motor current and electrode force was derived. Algorithm for feedback control of electrode force was suggested using current measurement. In addition, applying soft touch method to this system the impact between electrode and specimen, which is the problem of air gun, could be reduced. Indentation made the force decrease in holding time of resistance spot welding. In order to overcome this problem, force compensation using the servo gun was used and it improved weld strength in good welding current range.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.60-66
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• 2015

Molten zone shape of pulse laser welding is affected by welding conditions such as beam power, beam speed, irradiation time, pulse frequency, etc. and is divided into conduction type and keyhole type. It is necessary to design heat source model for irradiation of laser beam in the pulse laser welding. Shape variables and the maximum energy density value of the heat source model are different depending on the molten zone shape. In this paper, pulse laser welding simulation for joining of cylindrical part and circular cover was carried out. The heat source model for pulse laser beam with circular path was applied to the heat input boundary condition, radiative and conductive heat transfer were considered for the thermal boundary condition. For each phase, thermal and mechanical properties according to temperature were also applied to analysis. Analytical results were in good agreement with the molten zone size of specimen under the same welding conditions. So, the reliability of the welding simulation was verified. Finally, the improvements for reducing residual deformation after cover welding could be reviewed analytically.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.59-65
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• 2005

The resistance spot welding is one of the most commonly used welding process for joining the sheet metal in automotive manufacturing process due to higher deposition rates and higher economy achieved. Control variables in the resistance spot welding for achieving high quality are welding current, welding force and welding time. Generally at the manufacturing scene, welding current Vs welding time lobe diagram is used to estimate weldability because controlling welding force is not practical due to economical reasons. However new automotive steel plates have been developed to make lightweight automobiles and to improve resistance against rusting. Also the weldability of these steel plates are worst than the existing steel plates because of changing bare metal and surface plating effect. In consequence of above mentioned reasons, it is necessary to use welding force to present the lobe diagram. In this study, we obtained the welding force Vs welding current lobe diagram for commonly used GA steel plate and found that the second order repression model of tensile shear strength was useful in reducing the number of experiments, and the indentation, and thickness change during welding were used as a response to estimate quantitatively expulsion.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.67-73
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• 2002

In an attempt to evaluate the feasibility of friction stir welding(FSW) for joining carbon steels, microstructures and mechanical properties of friction stir welded carbon steels with different grain structures were investigated. In comparison of O-type stir zone(SZ) appeared in various aluminium alloys, configuration of SZ in friction stir welded carbon steels displayed U-type. Plastically deformed pearlite band structure was identified to surround the SZ, indicating the existence of so-called thermo-mechanically affected zone(TMAZ). However, the TMAZ of carbon steels was much narrower than that of Al alloys. The microstructures of both stir zone and TMAZ revealed bainite matrix in a conventional carbon steel for shipbuilding, while, in the same region, ferrite matrix microstructures were formed in a low carbon fine grained steel. The conventional carbon steel showed superior stirring workability to that of the fine grained carbon steel. The yield and tensile strength of the friction stir welded joints were comparable to those of the base metals, and the elongation in welded joints demonstrated excellent ductility. Absorbed energy in SZ of the fine grained carbon steel was ten times higher than that obtained from conventional submerged arc weld metal of the same steel. Based on these results, the application FSW to carbon steels was found to be feasible.