• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.30-35
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• 2014

According to weight lightning trend of automobile body, necessity of resistance spot welding (RSW) of Mg alloy on automobile industry is increasing rapidly because of the highest specific strength among commercial metals. Mg alloy has low electric resistance and high thermal conductivity like as Al alloy, so that needs applying high current in short time when welding. Thick oxide film of Mg alloy pollutes the electrodes and makes partial current carrying paths when on welding. Partial current carrying paths signify excessive concentration of current. There can initiate expulsion easily and reduces electrode life rapidly. Generating partial current carrying paths and expulsions are influenced by shapes of electrode. Therefore, electrode life also influenced by shape. In this study, we perform life test of RSW electrode of radius type. Measure tensile shear load and nugget size every spot alternately. As a result, radius type electrode can extend life over twice as dome type electrode.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.43-49
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• 2004

Conventional method for electrode force application in resistance spot welding(RSW) processes is to use pneumatic cylinder. However, due to its inherent problems in pneumatic power system such as compressibility of air and poor transient response characteristics, new electrode force system with servo control are recently introduced in RSW machine. This machine is called “servogun”. The purpose of this study is to evaluate performance of servogun in case of spot welding of aluminum alloy. Aluminum alloy(A5052) sheets are spot welded using pneumatic gun and servogun. Both results are compared by means of macro cross-section etching test and tensile shear strength test. Numerous previous research have reported nugget with many voids and cracks are not uncommon defects in spot welds with aluminum alloy. The experimental results show similar defects in case of pneumatic gun. In contrast, use of servogun considerably reduced generation of voids and cracks. In case of step-wise increased forging force at the end of welding cycle with servogun, crack-free and void-free nuggets have been observed. The performance of servogun has been also verified by series of tensile shear test. Higher strength values have been achieved with servogun in comparison to that of pneumatic gun.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2012

The resistance spot welding of high strength steel degrades the weldability because of its high strength with rich chemical composition and coating layer to protect from corrosion. During the each resistance welding process the electrodes tip reacts with coating layer, then subsequently deteriorates and shorten electrode life. In this study, the Al-coated HPF (Hot Press Forming) steels and Zn-coated TRIP steels were used to investigate the electrode life for resistance spot welding. Experimental results show that the reactivity of Al-coating on HPF steels to electrode tip surface behaviors different from the conventional Zn-coated high strength steels. The electrode tip diameter and nugget size in electrode life test of Al-coated HPF steels are observed to be constant with respect to weld numbers. For Al-coated HPF steels, the hard aluminum oxide layer being formed during high temperature heat treatment process reduces reactivity with copper electrode during the resistance welding process. Eventually, the electrode life in resistance spot welding of Al-coated HPF steels has the advantage over the galvanized steel sheets.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 1998

The effects of retained austenite and carbon content in the retained austenite on the tensile strength-elongation balance and spot weldability of TRIP high strength steel sheet have been investigated. The retained austenite of granular type increased with increasing intercritical annealing and austempering temperature, and film type was increased with the increase of austempering time. The volume fraction of retained austenite increased with decreasing intereritical annealing temperature, and the maximum value was obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The values of tensile strength-elongation balance increased with decreasing intercritical annealing temperature and maximum value was obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The maximum value of tensile strength-elongation balance was obtained at a retained austenite content of about 12%. Tensile shear strength of the specimens with retained austenite was higher than that of the normalizing specimens. With increasing welding current and time, the tensile shear strengh and nugget diameter increased, while nugget thickness showed the peak value and then decreased. The optimum range of welding condition at the given welding pressure of 350kgf was 7~11kA and 10~15 cycles.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.68-73
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• 2012

Nowadays, car manufacturers tried to improve automotive fuel efficiency, and applied many high strength steels such as AHSS or UHSS to car bodies. Therefore, the number of steel combinations for the resistance spot welding are dramatically increased and the need for weldability evaluation of these combinations are also required. In this study, we suggest the lobe curve using FEM simulations for DP780 steel with 1.0t, 1.4t. The lobe curves which could expressed weldablity and optimal welding condition were obtained according to 6 steel combinations. There were two combinations for same steel sheet which were DP780 1.0t, DP780 1.4t. Dissimilar steel sheet combination with different thickness was 1.0t and 1.4t of DP780. Different steel combinations were DP780 1.0t and SPRC440 1.0t, and DP780 1.0t and DP590 1.0t. Finally dissimilar combinations was and DP780 1.0t and DP590 1.4t. The trend of low boundary and high boundary variation of lobe curve were analyzed with a viewpoint of the contact resistance and the heat input.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.2845-2852
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• 2000

When welding a car frame with one spot welding there are same limitations because many parts of it cannot be simplified by one spot welding alone. It is presented two spot welding model for the description of the spot welding which is usually used in a car frame structure. This study primarily covers fatigue behavior taking spot welded SPCC(Steel plate carbon C) with different ungget intervals as a tension shear specimen. It was prepared that intervals between two nuggets are varied as 9mm, 14mm, and 20mm respectively. The tensile tests and fatigue tests were executed to know the mechanical properties under static and fatigue load condition. In addition, the relationship between fatigue life and nugget intervals was illustrated by finite element method.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.303-306
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• 2000

Quality estimation of the weld has been one of the important issues in RSW which is a main process of the sheep metal fabrication in auto-body industry, It was well known that among the various welding process variables, dynamic resistance has a close relation with nugget formation. With this variable, it is possible to estimate the weld quality in real time. In this study, a new quality estimation algorithm is developed with the primary dynamic resistance measured at welding machine timer. For this, feature recognition method of Hopfield neural network is used. Primary resistance patterns are vectorized and classified with five patterns. The network trained by these patterns recognizes the dynamic resistance pattern and estimates the weld quality Because the process variable monitored at the primary circuit is used, it is possible to apply this system to real time application without any consideration of electrode wear or shunt effect.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1156-1169
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• 1989

본 연구에서는 용접도중 발생할 수 있는 용접질 저항요인을 전극분리현상을 측정하여 파악하고 용접 열입력에 해당하는 용접전류를 학습제어방식(self-learning control)에 의하여 컴퓨터와 주변기기(interface)를 통해 조절함으로서 요구되는 균일한 용접질이 항상 보장되도록 하였다. 여기서 학습제어방식을 태택한 이유는 제어하고자 하는 대상의 동적 모델(dynamic model)이 없어도 제어기 이득의 선정이 비교적 자유롭고 용접 제어장치가 자체적으로 감지(monitoring)한 신호로 판단하여 제어동작을 취함으로서 용접시 축적되는 정보(data)가 용접기에 일종의 지능을 부여할 수 있어서 진보된 개념의 용접제어장치 개발의 가능성을 검토해 보기 위함이다.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.17-22
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• 2016

In terms of mechanical and metallurgical characteristics, the effect of tool plunge depths(0.2, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5mm) on weldability in dissimilar Al5083-O/DP590 friction spot joint has been clarified. From the results, it is found that the stirred nugget was stably formed at a plunge depth of more than 0.7mm, which is caused by improved stirring action against each other material. With increasing a plunge depth, the thickness of intermetallic compound(IMC) layer in Al5083-O/DP590 joint has a tendency to increase. The tensile shear strength reaches to the maximum failure load of 6.5kN at a plunge depth of 0.7mm due to relatively small decrease in the thickness of Al5083-O sheet and relatively minute thickness of IMC layer, compared with those of other plunge depth conditions.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2017

This paper presents a comparative study of the AC and MFDC resistance spot welding process with consideration of sheet thickness. The previous studies have confirmed that there is difference in the optimum welding current and expulsion current with AC and MFDC. The aim of this study was revealing the effect of sheet thickness on weldable current range and expulsion behavior for AC and MFDC welding processes. The optimum welding current of AC was lower (1.6 kA) than MFDC welding process in 0.8 mm sheet thickness. Early nugget growth being caused by the peak current of AC developed weld interface deformation, which resulted in suppressing the growth of corona bond and occurrence of low current expulsion. The resistance spot welding for thicker sheet (1.4 mm) required lower current of 0.6 kA for the expulsion on the MFDC welding process. The growth of contact diameter (size of corona bond) and button diameter was linear up to the expulsion current with MFDC welding process. Therefore, more attention is required when the AC and MFDC resistance spot welding process is applied for different thickness of steel sheet combination for automotive application.