Development in characterization of resistance spot welding of aluminum

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:115492

Hao, M; Osman, K A; Boomer, D R ^[1]

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1. and others

Automotive interest in aluminum is growing rapidly in Europe and North America. Resistance spot-welding and weld-bonding will be key techniques in the volume production of aluminum vehicles. As part of the Alcan program to fully understand and characterize the spot-welding of aluminum, it was necessary to develop a custom data a cquisition system. This can measure important electrical and mechanical process variables in real-time during the spot-welding process. The data acquisition system developed can be used to monitor both single-phase AC and medium frequency (MF)(DC) (inverter) welding systems. it can log data including current, voltage, dynamic resistance, electrode displacement, and electrode force at rates of up to 150 KHz. An acquisition and analysis system has been developed that is capable of extracting spot weld signatures from logged process data. No single-process parameter has been found which can be used to predict weld quality for aluminum. Multiple linear regression methods, based on a number of spot-welding process data, can predict nugget diameter and static strength.

• OSTI ID: 115492
• Report Number(s): CONF-9404233--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM BASE ALLOYS
ARC WELDING
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES