• 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.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.6-11
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• 2016

Joining Al/Fe dissimilar metals is becoming a subject of special interest in the assembly of automotive parts as a trade-off between the weight lightening and the cost reduction. Although various studies have been introduced to join Al alloy with the steel sheet by fusion welding, weak joint strength and galvanic corrosion still remained as problems to be solved. As a solid state welding, friction stir welding has been preferred to fusion welding processes in the dissimilar metal joints. This study investigated friction stir spot welding (FSSW) of Al alloy to the thin steel sheet with a thickness of 0.65 mm. The conventional FSSW is a stationary spot welding process but new approach adopted an additional circumferential movement in company with high speed tool rotation. A full factorial experimental design was implemented, and the main and interaction effects of parameters were analysed on the failure load in the tensile shear test. The direction and radius of rotation were statistically significant parameters and these two parameters affected the joint width and the shape of the hook.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2011

There is problem to reduce the car body weight for improving fuel consumption and $CO_2$ generation. As one of the solution, the multi material car body concept using aluminum alloys and high strength steels is proposed recently. Therefore, new welding processes by which these dissimilar material can be joined in high reliability and productivity are demanded. Laser spot welding was developed for joining of dissimilar metals. In the present work, Laser spot welding of zinc coated steel and aluminum alloy was investigated, and the process parameters were studied. Otherwise, the influences of process parameters on the weldability, the formation of intermetallic compound layer and the mechanical properties have been investigated. When intermetallic compound layer thickness was more than 1mm, specimen was failure in the interface.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.36-42
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• 2009

In the present day, new performances are demanded for automobile body steel sheet for example, light weight, durability, resistance corrosion and environmental protection. For an improvement of resistance corrosion, European automobile companies developed pre-sealed steel in 1990's. Pre-sealed steel have organic coated layer upper zinc coated layer. Evaluating a resistance spot weldability of pre-sealed steel plate is important because resistance spot welding is used mainly in automobile body joining process. In this study, evaluating a weldability of pre-sealed steel plate was carried out using lobe diagram, dynamic resistance and high-speed image. Usually, Pre-sealed steel has poor weldability than GA steel's. To improve a weldability of pre-sealed steel sheet, pre-current was applied to welding process. Pre-current is applied prior to base-current. In conclusion, the weldability of pre-sealed steel has been improved than GA steel's by applying pre-current.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.301-306
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• 2003

Spot welding is frequently used for industrial purpose, such as automobile and aerospace industries and household appliances due to its high performance. In these day, robotization and systemization of welding process made it possible to produce more precise or smaller electric parts. And when it comes to welding of steel sheet, the size of nugget must be getting smaller. Therefore, welding conditions are limited to avoid defects, such as deformation, damage, weakening of joining area. In this research, the measurement of the nugget size by the nondestructive inspection has been conducted. As a result, the right estimation of the nugget size and void defects, the detection of corona bond near joining area, the selection of the optimum ultrasonic mode, and set up for ultrasonic inspection are studied. From the trustworthy solutions of nugget size estimated by results of measurement, the optimum inspection conditions depending upon the width of welding parts are determined as well.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.12
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• pp.967-976
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• 2011

Conventional fracture tests of resistance spot welds have been performed without consideration of the paint baking process in the automobile manufacturing line. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the paint baking process on load carrying capacity and fracture mode for resistance spot welded 590 dual phase (DP), 780DP, 980DP, 590 transformation in duced plasticity (TRIP), 780TRIP and 1180 complex phase (CP) steels. With paint baking after resistance spot welding, the l-shape tensile test (LTT) and nano-indentation test were conducted on the as-welded and paint baked samples. Paint baking increased the load-carrying capacity of the resistance spot welded samples and improved the fracture appearance from partial interfacial fracture (PIF) to button fracture (BF). Improvement in fracture appearance after LTT is observed on weldments of 780 MPa grade TRIP steels, especially in the low welding current range with paint baking conditions. The higher carbon contents (or carbon equivalent) are attributed to the low weldability of the resistance spot welding of high strength steels. Improvement of the fracture mode and load carrying ability has been achieved with ferrite hardening and carbide formation during the paint baking process. The average nano-indentation hardness profile for each weld zone shows hardening of the base metal and softening of the heat affected zone (HAZ) and the weld metal, which proves that microstructural changes occur during low temperature heat treatment.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.72-81
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• 2011

In the present day, the needs of new steel for lightweight car-body have been increased in the automotive industry. however, the resistance spot welding is difficult to apply to the new steel because of the narrow weld current range and defects. As the solutions to these problems, adhesive bonding process is proposed. Adhesive bonding which reduce noise and vibration can be applied to joining the new steel. In this study, crash tests of b-pillar applied the resistance spot welding, structural adhesive bonding, the mixture of the structural adhesives and resistance spot welding were performed. And FEM crash model for b-pillar applied the structural adhesive bonding was developed. The results of experiment and analysis on b-pillar crash test were compared to verify the validity.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.568-571
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• 2000

Resistance spot welding is widely employed in a manufacturing process. In recent years the requirement for more sophisticated quality control procedures has been in the mass production industries. The requirements for high productivity and good welding qualities have lead to the development of more widely available microprocessor or computer based control, In this paper the inverter-type power source and welding servo gun are developed.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.513-517
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• 2003

Resistance welding processes are widely used in automotive applications. In particular, Mash-Seam resistance welding is typically used in Tailored Blank process. If spot welds are changed to a continuous weld, it's easy to reduce noise and to be more stable in cars. A arc welding, laser welding, seam welding using wheel electrode are available to make continuous welds on a car body, but they demand operator with advanced skills and expensive cost to develop. Therefore, flat electrode continuous mash-seam resistance welding process has been used to improve the weak points in currently available system in lap seam welding. This developed process has much more strength and air tightability, and also has much better plastic workability than laser welding. Moreover, commercial RSW machine can be readily used in this welding process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2002

The mechanical joining process of a sheet metal pair has been developed in order to replace the resistance spot welding process in case that joining of mechanically unweldable materials and coated sheet metals with different thickness are needed. Form-joining or clinching, a kind of mechanical joining process, is defined as joining process of a sheet metal pair by geometric constraint imposed by plastic deformation of workpieces without any additive part. It has been reported that the joining strength by commercial form-joining apparatus is 50∼70 percent of that by resistance spot welding. Therefore, a two-step form-joining process with a secondary punch is proposed. The device is designed to improve the joining strength by increasing the geometric constraint of the deformed shape by combining a primary punch, a secondary punch and a female die. In order to verify the improved joining strength by the designed process, the tensile-shear strength, the peel-tension strength and the asymmetric peel-tension strength are compared with those by the TOX process and resistance spot welding.