• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제28권6호
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• pp.70-75
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• 2010

This study intends to investigate the weldability and mechanical characteristics of butt weld joints by LAFSW for dissimilar materials (Al6061-T6 and SS400). At optimum welding conditions, the tensile strength of dissimilar materials joints made by FSW is found to be lower than that of LAFSW. Due to the increase in plastic flow and formation of finer recrystallized grains at the TMAZ and SZ by laser preheating in LAFSW, the hardness in LAFSW appeared to be higher than that of FSW. Compared with FSW, finer grain size is observed and elongated grains in parent metal are deformed in the same direction around the nugget zone in TMAZ of Al6061-T6 by LAFSW. Whereas, at weld nugget zone, coarse grain size is appeared in LAFSW compared to FSW, which is owing to more plastic flow due to laser preheating effect. In dissimilar materials joints by LAFSW, ductile mode of fracture is found to occur at Al6061 side with fewer brittle particles. Mixed mode of cleavage area and ductile fracture is observed at SS400 side.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.73-78
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• 2009

Characterization of the microweld CCFL electrode for the TFT-LCD backlight unit was carried out in terms of the glass beading heat treatment conditions. We evaluate the weld zone and parent metal of the microweld CCFL electrodes that were exposed to simulated glass beading heat treatment. The CCFL electrode was composed of the cup made with pure Ni, the pin made with pure Mo and the lead wire made with Ni-Mn alloy. Each part of the electrode was assembled together by micro spot welding process and then the assembled electrodes were exposed to simulated glass beading temperatures of $700^{\circ}C,\;750^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$. The microstructures of the microweld CCFL electrode were observed by using optical microscope, scanning electron microscope and EDS. Micro-tensile and microhardness test were also carried out. The results indicated that the grain coarsening in the HAZs(heat affected zones) for both the cup-pin weld and pin-lead wire were exhibited and the grain coarsening of the HAZ for the cup and the lead wire was more obvious than the HAZ of the pin. The micro-tensile test revealed that the fracture occurred at the cup-pin weld zone for all test conditions. The fracture surface could be classified into two parts such as pin portion and cup portion including weld nugget. The failure was seemed to be initiated from the boundary between nugget and pin through the weld joint. The result of the microhardness measurement exhibited that the relatively low hardness value, about 105HV was recorded at the HAZ of the cup. This value was about 50% less than that of the original value of the cup. The reduction of the microhardness was considered as the cause of the grain coarsening due to welding process. It was also appeared that there was no change in electric resistance for the standard electrodes and heat treated electrodes.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.179-185
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• 2008

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic method on the weld pitch design of a vehicle sub-frame considering the fatigue life of spot welding points. The input data, which perform the fatigue analysis on the spot welding nuggets, are obtained by both the dynamic analysis of the multi-body vehicle model passing through the virtual proving ground of a typical Belgian road and the quasi-static analysis with the finite element model of the vehicle sub-frame. By utilizing the life cycle data obtained from the fatigue analysis, the welding points to perform the pitch change are determined. The sensitivity analysis on the fatigue life of the welding points is carried out by using the three-level orthogonal array design, and through the results of the sensitivity analysis, the best combination on the welding pitch is determined. This study shows that as compared with the baseline design, the sub-frame redesigned by the proposed technique improves the fatigue life about 7 percent while reducing the number of welding points about 19 percent.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.76-85
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• 1998

The resistance spot welding process has been used for joining the sheet metal in automotive engineering. In the resistance spot welding, the weld quality is very important, because the quality of weld is one of the most important factors to the automobile quality. The size of he molten nugget has been utilized to estimate the weld quality. However, it is not easy to find the weld defects. For weldability estimation, we have to use the nondestructive method such as X-ray or ultrasonic inspection. But these kinds of approaches are not suitable for detecting the defects in real time. The purpose of this study is to develop the real time monitoring of the weld quality in the resistance spot welding. Obtained data were used to estimate weldability using fuzzy algorithm. It is sound that this monitoring and estimation system can be useful to improve the weld quality in the resistance spot welding process and it is possible to estimate the weldability in real time.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.63-68
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• 2009

Microminiature heat exchanger has been applied to the gas turbine in order to increase energy efficiency. During the production of microminiature heat exchanger, however, it is very difficult to weld tube to tubesheet. In this study, therefore, welding process of resistance ring projection was used, and weld tensile tests were performed. Sound weld joint was obtained as a result of applying resistance ring projection welding to microminiature heat exchanger to tubesheet. Cold weld occurred at under 1600A. Even though tensile strength was increased with increasing current, splash occurred and tensile strength decreased at 2000A due to the excessive current. Therefore it was determine that the optimal current is 1900A. As result of tensile tests based on ASME code for tube to tubesheet weldment, rupture position was weldment due to Fs(Fractured section) of nugget, which was smaller than tube thickness (t), and it was proven as a partial strength welding because of the average joint efficiency fr = 0.90.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.102-107
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• 2009

Weldability of Mg alloy was investigated using servo-actuated DC resistance spot welder. Due to its uncommon electrical and mechanical properties, lots of voids and cracks were observed inside nugget with conventional weld schedule. Lobe curve was proposed to clarify proper electrode force and weld current, which guarantee reasonable weld strength and fatigue life. Macro structure of sectioned specimen was examined to count total number of void and crack. Post weld schedule is also proposed to reduce micro victors hardness value of weld zone.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.56-62
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• 1994

The spot weldability of high strength steel sheet and two stories galvannealed high strength steel sheet has been studied. 1) Tensile shear strength decreased inversely as welding current increased over 12KA in the case of two stories galvannealed high strength steel sheet. 2) When heat flux input over 12KA, hardening region become narrow in case of two stories galvannealed high strength steel sheet. 3) The size of hardening region affect the strength of nuggets.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제17권6호
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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.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.20-28
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• 1997

The fatigue crack propagation properties and fatigue life of two kinds of Al body panel for automobile were examined experimentally by using the plate specimen and the single spot welding specimen. The fatigue limit of spot welding specimens was lower than that of a plate specimen. The fatigue limit was similar in two kinds of spot welding specimen. The shape and size of crack propagation were observed and measured on beach mark of fracture surface. The crack propagation of surface crack specimen showed almost same tendency to that of a thick plate as almost semi-elliptical. In spot welding specimen, the fatigue crack occurred in inside surface of nugget area was almost semi-elliptical. The crack growth rate can be explained using equation of stress intensity factors.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.42-62
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• 1997

Resistance spot welding has been widely used in the sheet metal joining processes because of its high productivity and convenience. Recently, automobile industries are trying to replace partly steel sheets with aluminum alloy sheets. Among currently produced aluminum alloys, Al alloy sheets of Al-Mg-Si(6000 series) are being tested. Especially, 6000 series are the most probable substitute in view of strength and weldability. In this paper, an attempt was made to apply resistance spot welding to joining of dissimilar sheet metals (KS6383+SCPZn or KS6383+SHCP). An effort was made to balance heating rate in the Al alloy with that in the steel sheets by increasing electrode tip diameter. Although resistance spot welding of Al alloy sheet and sheet metals does not produce desirable nugget, it proved to have reasonable strength if optimal weld condition is found by tensile-shear strength and fatigue life test. Since spot weld joints in automobile are always experiencing repeated load, spot welding methodology proposed in this paper is found to be not suitable to automobile body manufacturing.