• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.644-649
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• 2017

In the automobile industry, there is growing demand for lightweight vehicles due to environmental problems and rising oil prices. Therefore, aluminum alloys and special materials are being used to reduce the weight of vehicles, but there are still many difficulties to overcome in terms of cost and strength. Therefore, the application of advanced high strength steel (AHSS)is increasing. AHSS has good strength and formability.Safety regulations are becoming stricter, and 1.2-GPa super-high-strength steels are gradually being applied for the center pillar and roof rails. Thus, the application of different kinds of steels in automobile bodiesis also increasing gradually. This study evaluates the resistance point weldability and the characteristics of a welded part of SGAFC1180 1.2t steel. A simulation was used to observe the nugget formation and its growth behavior. The prediction performance showed a similar tendency within an error rate of 10%. Also, the effect of this behavior on the process resistance and dynamic resistance was investigated,along with the correlation between the shear tensile strength and nugget diameter.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.21-34
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• 1992

The behavior of fatigue crack growth in the single spot welded joint of zinc galvanized steel sheets was studied experimentally and analytically based on fracture mechanics. Axial tension fatigue tests were carried out with the BSxGAB specimen that the bare plane(GAB) of monogalvanized steel sheet was spot welded to the double thickness bare steel sheet(BS), and with the GAxGAB specimen that the galvanized plane (GA) was spot welded to the equal thickness bare plane (GAB) 1. The relation between maximum stress intensity factor, K sub(max) and the number of cycles to failure, N sub(f) has shown a linear relation on log-log plot in the spot weld of the zinc galvanized steel sheet. 2. The fatigue strength of BSxGAB specimens is about 23% higher than that of GAxGAB specimens at the fatigue strength of $1\times10^6$ cycles. And the fatigue life of BSxGAB specimens at the same load range increases 6~9 times higher than that of GAxGAB specimens. 3. The general tendency at the angle of bending($\theta$) in an applied load has changed rapidly at the initial 20% of its life. After then, it has changed slowly. The change at the angle of bending has increased linearly as the load range increases. 4. It has shown a linear relation between the location ratio of initiation ${\gamma}$ and fatigue life $N_f$ on the semi-log graph paper. Here $\gamma$ means that the crack distance between main crack and sub-crack, 2L is divided by the nugget diameter, 2r. $\gamma=a{\cdot}log N_f+n$ (where a and n are material constant.)

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.81-91
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• 2008

The weldability of resistance spot welding of TRIP1180 steels for automobile components investigated enhance in order to achieve understanding of weld fracture during tensile-shear strength (TSS) test. The main failure modes for spot welds of TRIP1180 steels were nugget pullout and interfacial fracture. The peak load to cause a weld interfacial failure was found to be related to fracture toughness of the weld and the weld diameter. Although interfacial fracture occurred in the spot welded samples, the load-carrying capacity of the weld was high and not significantly affected by the fracture mode. Substantial part of the weld exhibits the characteristic dimple (or elongated dimple) fractures on interfacial fractured surface also, dimple fracture areas were drawmatically increased with heat input which is propotional to the applied weld current. In spite of the high hardness values associated with the martensite microstructures due to high cooling rate. The high load-carrying ability of the weld is directly associated with the area of ductile fracture occurred in weld. Therefore, the judgment of the quality of resistance spot welds in TRIP1180 steels, the load-carrying capacity of the weld should be considered as an important factor than fracture mode.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.136-145
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• 2012

Resistance spot welding of TRIP780 steels was investigated to enhance understanding of weld fracture mode after tensile shear testing (TST) and L-shape tensile testing (LTT). The main failure mode for spot welds of TRIP780 steels was partial interfacial fracture (PIF). Although PIF does not satisfy the minimum button diameter (4${\surd}$t) for acceptable welds, it shows enough load carrying capacity of resistance spot welds for advanced high strength steels. In the analysis of displacement controlled L-shape tensile test results, cracks initiated at the notch of the faying surface and propagated through the interface of weldments, and finally, cracks change path into the sheet thickness direction. Use of the ductility ratio and CE analysis suggested that the occurrence of PIF is closely related to high hardness and brittle welds, which are caused by fast cooling rates and high chemical compositions of TRIP steels. Analysis of the hold time and weld time in a welding schedule demonstrated that careful control of the cooling rate and the size of a weld nugget and the HAZ zone can reduce the occurrence of PIF, which leads to sound welds with button fractures (BFs).

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.495-505
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• 2008

With the high proportion of zinc coated steels in body-in-white assembly, newly developed surface roughness textured galvannealed steel sheets have been introduced. In this study, zinc coated and surface roughness textured steel sheets were welded by resistance spot welding to investigate its weldability including electrode wear test. Based on the results of tensile-shear test, nugget diameter changes, and electrode tip growth test, it was clear that both surface roughness textured steels (GA-T and GA-E) showed good weldability. Also, there was no large difference in weldability and electrode wear behavior between GA-T and GA-E steels which have different surface roughness morphology. An analysis of electrode degradation showed Fe and Zn penetration through the electrode tip surface at 2400 welds reached $55{\sim}60{\mu}m$ and $75{\sim}80{\mu}m$, respectively. Therefore, there is no significant effect of surface roughness morphology on spot weldability of surface roughness textured galvannealed steel sheets. However, slight difference in thickness of alloying layers existing on electrode tip was found between GA-T and GA-E steels.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.834-841
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• 2009

A study on the welding of electrogalvanized TRIP (Transformation-Induced Plasticity) steels was done to compare the life of the electrode and the alloying phenomena on the electrode tip surface using singlephase AC and inverter-DC resistance welding processes. A longer life of the electrode (>200 welds) was achieved using the inverter-DC welding process. The tensile shear strength was higher in the electrode life test when welded with the inverter DC welding machine it maintained a higher value even when the welding nugget diameter was smaller than specified. When spot-welding was conducted using the single-phase AC welding process, a higher wear rate of the electrode was observed compared to that with the inverter-DC process. An alloying layer used to determine the rate of electrode growth showed differences in the metallurgical features of the surface alloying and Zn penetration depending on whether the single-phase AC process or the inverter-DC welding process was used. Moreover, changes in the dynamic resistance during the electrode life test were correlated with the electrode wear (or growth) rate.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.672-682
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• 2008

The resistance spot welding of TRIP590 steels was investigated to enhance understanding of weld fracture during tensile-shear strength (TSS) test. The main failure modes for spot welds of TRIP590 steels were nugget pullout and interfacial fracture. The peak load to cause a weld interfacial failure was found to be related to fracture toughness of the weld and the weld diameter. Although interfacial fracture occurred in the samples, the load carrying capacity of the weld was high and not significantly affected by the fracture mode. Substantial part of the weld exhibits the characteristic dimple (or elongated dimple) fractures on interfacial fractured surface, in spite of the high hardness values associated with the martensite microstructures. The high load-bearing ability of the weld is directly associated with the area of ductile fracture occurred in weld. Therefore, the judgment of the quality of resistance spot welds in TRIP590 steels, the load carrying capacity of the weld should be considered as an important factor than fracture mode.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.52-60
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• 2018

In the automobile industry, in order to increase the fuel efficiency and conform to the safety regulations, it is necessary to make the vehicles as light as possible. Therefore, it is crucial to manufacture dual phase steels, complex phases steels, MS steels, TRIP steels, and TWIP from high strength steels with a tensile strength of 700Mpa or more. In order to apply ultra-high tensile strength steel to the body, the welding process is essential. Resistance spot welding, which is advantageous in terms of its cost, is used in more than 80% of cases in body welding. It is generally accepted that ultra-high tensile strength steel has poor weldability, because its alloy element content is increased to improve its strength. In the case of the resistance spot welding of ultra-high tensile steel, it has been reported that the proper welding condition area is reduced and interfacial fracture and partial interfacial fracture occur in the weld zone. Therefore, research into the welding quality judgment that can predict the defect and quality in real time is being actively conducted. In this study, the dynamic resistance of the weld was monitored using the secondary circuit process variables detected during resistance spot welding, and the factors necessary for the determination of the welding quality were extracted from the dynamic resistance pattern. The correlations between the extracted factors and the weld quality were analyzed and a regression analysis was carried out using highly correlated pendulums. Based on this research, a regression model that can be applied to the field was proposed.