• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.148-159
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• 1998

Spot welding palys a key role in increasing productivity and weight reduction of the final products. This paper proposes a systematic approach on the design of spot weld configuration, dealing with the requried number and location of spot weld joints under the given design parameters, such as the applied loads, lap area, and individual spot weld strength. The optimal design of a spot-welded joint is postulated as a state when the safety factors of all spot weld points (i) are evenly distributed and (ii) reach maximum value. A CAD program is developed to arrange the optimal location of each spot weld based on the derived objective function and constraints. The CAD tool integrates the optimization procedure with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) code through an interface. The interface automatically provides geometrical data and mesh configuration for different spot weld locations to FEA model. It also extracts the transmitted load of each spot weld from the FEA code, and allows the optimization code predict an improved arrangement of spot weld locations. The feasibility of the developed approach is demonstrated by the selected examples.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.25-31
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• 1999

Stainless steel sheets are commonly used for vehicles such as the bus and the train. These are mainly fabricated by spot-welding. By the way, its fatigue strength is lower than base metal due to high stress concentration at the nugget. edge of the spot-welding. By the way, its fatigue strength is lower than base metal due to high stress concentration at the nugget edge of the spot-welding point. Especially, it is influenced by welding conditions as well as geometrical factors of spot welded joint. Therefore, it is not too much to say that structural rigidity and strength of spot-welded structures is decided by fatigue strength of spot welded lap joint. Thus, it is necessary to establish a reasonable and systematic long life design criterion for the spot-welded structure. In this study, numerical stress analysis was performed by using 3-dimensional finite element model on IB-type spot-welded lap joint of 304 stainless steel sheet under tension-shear load. Fatigue tests were also conducted on them having various thickness, joint angle, lapped length, and width of the plate. From the results, it was found that fatigue strength of IB-type spot-welded lap joints was influenced by its geometrical factors, however, could be systematically rearranged by maximum principal stress ({TEX}$σ_{1max}${/TEX}) at the nugget edge of the spot-welding point.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.32-37
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• 1999

Since stainless steel plates have good mechanical properties, weldability, appearance and resistance of corrosion, these are traditionally used for vehicles such as the bus and the train. And they are mainly fabricated by spot welding. But fatigue strength of their spot welded joint is considerably influenced by welding conditions as well as geometrical factors. Thus a reasonable and systematic criterion for long life design of spot welded body structure must be established. In this report, strain energy density was analyzed by using 3-dimensional finite element model about the IB-type spot welded lap joint under tension-shear load. Fatigue tests were conducted on them having various thickness, joint angle, lapped length and width. From their results, it was found that fatigue strength of the IB-type spot welded lap joints could be effectively and systematically rearranged by strain energy density at the edge of nugget.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.68-73
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• 2010

Welding conditions in process of spot welding must become optimum and need to guarantee stability and reliability of vehicle body considering dynamic load history. Because welding parameters in process of spot welding are various, it is difficult that the quality of spot weldment was included in the optimum levels. In this paper, we found the optimum welding conditions satisfying KS spot welding qualities using genetic algorithm and spot welding experiments of high tensile strength steel and galvanized steel. Those experiments were dissimilar weld and 2-lap spot welding. Genetic algorithm created random welding condition after that, selected optimum individuals by probability concept.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2002

The automobile is made up of about twenty thousand parts. Some parts are formed by pressing and combined by spot welding. Among them, steel palate of fuel tank is formed in the metal mold and bending parts are jointed by spot and seam welding. To find weldability conditions of spot welding, clearance between two welding steel plates was made and after spot welding, weldability is evaluated by means of tensile shear load, nugget size and shape. Specimen used in this study was a mild steel of 1.2mm thickness and electrode was Cu-Cr alloy of 6mm diameter. When spot welding started, the clearance of two steel plates was changed 0mm, 3mm and 5mm step by step. The fractured surface of specimen after this test was observed by Optical Microscope to measure microstructure and nugget shape. When clearance of two specimen was 3mm and 5mm, strength and nugget size was decreased and nugget shape was not clear.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.66-73
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• 2010

Conventional fracture test of resistance spot weld had been performed without consideration of paint baking process in automobile manufacturing line. This study was aim to investigate the effect of paint baking on fracture mode and load carrying capacity in fracture test for resistance spot welded 780TRIP steels. With paint baking cycle after resistance spot welds, peel tests and microhardness were conducted on the as-welded and baked samples. Resistance spot welds in AHSS (Advanced High Strength Steels) are prone to display partial interfacial fractures during fracture test or vehicle crash. Baking cycle increased the load-carrying capacity of the resistance spot welded samples and improved the fracture appearance from partial to full button fracture for the L-type peel tests. Specially, the differences in fracture appearance are apparent when the nugget size of spot welds is small enough to produce the partial interfacial fracture. The comparison of macrohardness and microstructure between as-welded and baked samples showed that there are no large difference in change the fracture mode. However, the results of the instrumented indentation test suggested that fusion zone and HAZ of baked sample have less tensile and yield strength and proves that the tempering effects are applied and enhanced the resistance to fracture on welds with application of baking cycle.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2015

High strength steels have been continually being developed to improve in fuel economy in automotive and ensure safety of passengers. New bonding and welding methods have been required for improving weldability on high strength steels. In this study, resistance spot welding and Weld-bond with nugget diameters of 4.0mm, 5.0mm, 6.0mm and 7.0mm were produced and tested, respectively. In order to confirm the effect of nugget diameters on tensile shear characteristic of the Weld-bond, tensile shear characteristics of Weld-bond were compared with those of resistance spot welding and adhesive bonding. Peak load of Weld-bond were increased as the nugget diameter increases. After appearing maximum peak load continuous fracture followed with second peak owing to load being carried by resistance spot weldment. Fracture modes of the adhesive layer in Weld-bond fractures were represented by mixed fracture mode, which are cohesive failure on adhesive part and button failure at resistance spot welds. The results showed that the tensile shear properties can be improved by applying Weld-bond on TRIP steel, and more apparent with nugget diameter higher than 5${\surd}$t.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.23-30
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• 2016

This paper discusses the optimization of friction stir spot welding (FSSW) process parameters for joining Aluminum alloy (AA6061-T6) with Magnesium alloy (AZ31B) sheets. Prior to optimization an empirical relationship was developed to predict the Tensile Shear Fracture Load (TSFL) incorporating the four most important FSSW parameters, i.e., tool rotational speed, plunge rate, dwell time and tool diameter ratio, using response surface methodology (RSM). The experiments were conducted based on four factor, five levels central composite rotatable design (CCD) matrix. The maximum TSFL obtained was 3.61kN, with the tool rotation of 1000 rpm, plunge rate of 16 mm/min, dwell time of 5 sec and tool diameter ratio of 2.5.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.173-181
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• 2000

The stability of a structural plate is a crucial problem which causes wrinkling and buckling. In this paper, the effect of the pattern of spot-welding points in the two rectangular plate on the shear buckling load is studied with respect to the thickness, the aspect ratio of plates, the number of welding spots. Buckling coefficient of the simple plate was compared with that of two plates with various conditions to extract the effect of buckling strength. The effect of the number of welding spots are studied in two directions, longitudinal and transverse directions. The concluded that the reinforcement effect was maximized when the aspect ratio was close to 1.5 and that the effect of number of welding spots in longitudinal direction was larger than that in transverse direction.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.195-201
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• 2000

The fundamental spot welded sections of automobiles (hat-shaped and double hat-shaped sections) absorb most of the energy in a front impact collision. The sections of various thickness, shape and weld width on the flange lave been tested on axial impact crush load (Mass 40kg, Velocity 7.19m/sec) using a vertical air pressure crash est device Characteristics of impact collapse have been reviewed and a structure of optimal energy absorbing capacity is suggested.