• 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 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.

• 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 Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.3 s.76
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• pp.71-76
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• 2007

Recently, many industries have been employing the application of laser beam welding, due to the resulting high welding quality, such as smaller width of melting and heat affective zone, smaller welding deformation, and fine grains of weldment, compared to arc welding. However, in order to appropriately utilize this welding process with steel structure, the characteristics of welding residual stresses and fracture toughness in welded joints are to be investigated for reliability. Therefore, in this study, the mechanical properties of weldments by arc and laser welding are investigated using FEM to confirm the weldability of laser welding to the general structural steel (HT50). The Charpy impact test and 3-points bending CTOD test are carried out in the range of temperatures between $-60^{\circ}C\;and\;20^{\circ}C$, in order to understand the effect on the fracture toughness of weldments. From the research results, it has been found that the maximum residual stress appears at the center of plate thickness, and that the fracture toughness is influenced by strength mis-match.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.395-403
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• 2006

Recently constructed bridges often have long spans and simple structure details considering not only the function but other important factors such as aesthetics, maintenance, construction duration and life cycle cost. Therefore, bridges require high-performance steels like extra-thick plate steels and thermo-mechanical control process (TMCP) steels. TMCP stels are now gaining wide attention due to their weldability improved strength and toughness. Recently, SM570-TMC steel, which is a high-strength TMCP steel with a tensile strength of 600 MPa, has been developed and applied to steel structures. However, using this steel in building steel structures requires the elucidation of not only material characteristics but also the mechanical characteristic of welded joints. In this study, high-temperature tensile properties of SM570-TMC steel were investigated through the elevated temperature welded joints of SM570-TMC steel were studied through the three-dimensional thermal elasticplastic analyses on the basis of mechanical properties at high temperatures obtained from the experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2009

Die steel for plastic molding were used as mold material of automobile parts and electronic component industry. The material of this paper has superior to mechanical properties, such as repair weldability, corrosion resistance and high temperature strength, required mold parts for semitransparent. Laser-induced surface hardening technology is widely adopted to improver fatigue life and wear resistance via localized hardening at the surface of mold parts. The objective of this research work is to investigate on the characteristics of surface hardening of the laser process parameters, such as beam travel speed, laser power and defocsued spot position, for the case of die steel for plastic molding. Lens for surface hardening of large area is plano-convex type with elliptical profile to maintain uniform laser irradiation. According to the experimental results, large size of hardened layer at the surface of die steel for plastic molding was achieved, and microstructure of this layer was lath martensite. Optimal surface status and mechanical property of hardened layer could be obtained at 1095Watt, $0.25{\sim}0.3m/min$, 0mm (focal length: 232mm) for laser power, beam travel speed, and focal position. Where, heat input was $0.793{\times}10^{3}J/cm^2$, and width of hardened layer was 27.58mm.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2002

During laser spot welding of the braun tube electron gun, phenomena such as serious spattering and oxidative reaction, etc. were occurred. The spatter occurred from weld pool affects the braun tube, namely it blocks up a very small hole on the shadow mask and causes short circuit between two roles of the electron gun. We guessed that high power density and oxidative reaction are main sources of these problems. So, we studied to prevent and to reduce spatter occurring in spot welding of the braun tube electron gun using pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The characteristics of laser output power was estimated, and the loss of laser energy by optical parameter and spatter was measured by powermeter. The effects of welding parameters, laser defocused distance and incident angle, were investigated on the shape and penetration depth of the laser welded bead in flare and flange joints. From these results, the laser peak power was a major factor to control penetration depth and to occur spatter. It was found that the losses of laser energy by optic parameter and sticked spatter affect seriously laser weldability of thin sheets. The deepest penetration depth is gotten on focal position, and a "bead transition" occurred with a slight displacement of focal position relative to the workpiece surface and the absorption rate of the laser energy is affected by the shape factor of the workpiece. When we changed the incident angle of laser beam, the penetration depth was decreased a little with increasing of the incident angle, and the bead width was increased. The spattering was prevented by considering laser beam energy and incident angle.ent angle.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.64-64
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• 2009

The use of ultra high strength steels (UTSS) is a natural result with increasing the demands for the lightweight materials and developing an innovative steel technology. Recently it has been used a 1500MPa grade hot stamping steel as automobile bodies, reinforcement parts, and seat frame parts in the automotive industry. It is a quenchenable steel manufactured by hot stamping process. It is well known that UTSS welding has softening in the heat affected zone(HAZ). Because welding is a sort of process applying heat, it should change the heat treated features and degrade the strength. This study was performed to investigate the influence of the heat input on the softening of the HAZ in the GMAW process. Each experiment was compared with that in the conditions having a different current and voltage at a same heat input. In order to analysis characteristics of the HAZ, optical microscope was used to observe microstructure and vickers hardness tests were carried out across the welds. Applying low heat input means a fast cooling rate. It leads to high hardness in the HAZ. It is found that characteristics of the HAZ are determined by microstructure obtained by different cooling rate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.5 s.60
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• pp.647-656
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• 2002

High-strength steel in steel bridges is the key to achieving cost-efficiency because it facilitates lightweight construction and rationalizes structure. The future of high-strength steel is bright, with its use projected to expand. As such, it is necessary to evaluate precisely various factors affecting the process of fabricating high-strength steel, i.e., welding heat, strain hardening, and weldability and performance of the welded joints. This study therefore performed the maximum hardness test and y-groove weld crack test using welding processes such as SAW, FCAW, and GMAW, in order to investigate the welding performance and characteristics of welded Joints or high-strength steel produced in Korea such as SM570, POSTEN60, and POSTEN80. In addition, a series of welding tests was carried out to estimate the tensile strength, bending characteristics, absorbed energy, and hardness in welded joints.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.18-27
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• 2007

Laser welding process is widely used in the industrial field due to its numerous advantages: a small heat affected zone(HAZ), deep penetration, high welding speed, ease of automation, single-pass thick section capability, enhanced design flexibility, and small distortion after welding. The objective of this research works is to investigate the influence of the process parameters, such as the welding fur metals with CW Nd:YAG lasers. The bead-on-plate and Lap welding experiments are carried out for several combinations of the experimental conditions. In order to quantitatively examine the characteristics of the welding quality of the cross section, tensile stress behavior and the hardness of the welded part are investigated in comparison of the Nickel coated and Nickel uncoated S45C steel. As a result of experiment, nickel coated S45C Steel showed more even weld zone than Nickel uncoated counterpart upon lap welding. Also, it showed relatively small amount of internal defects and spatter, and Nickel coated S45C showed better weldability than Nickel uncoated S45C steel. The optimum welding process upon lap welding of Nickel coated S45C steel is when each laser power is 1900W; focal positions is -1mm; welding speed is $0.9{\sim}1.0m/min$. The heat input was $4.178{\sim}4.36{\times}103J/cm^2$.