M.

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Seminar-1 (MMEMP 108)

3. RESISTANCE SPOT WELDING

The resistance spot welding is the most popular method of joining metal sheets. The connection arises by flowing the current and action of welding force. Heating of joining parts during resistance welding is an effect of heat generation on electrical resistance of welding circuit. Resistance spot welding (RSW) is the most popular method of joining parts in automotive industry ,as it is low-cost, rapid, simply and easy for automation. Over 90% of spot welds of all over the world are per-formed by automotive industry [7]. It was estimated, that each body car and its components. Though there have been huge investigations in machining of these materials the results of those investigations are not well linked.

Fig.3.1. Schematic view of the spot welding process

4.ADVANCED HIGH STRENGTH STEELS

advanced high strength steels (AHSS) for use in the automobile industry, including chemical composition design, microstructure and mechanical properties development during thermomechanical processing, production technology characterisation, potential applications and performance in service. AHSS steels are considered to be the major materials for future applications in this production sector. As opposed to the cold formable single phase deep-drawable grades, the mechanical properties of AHSS steels are controlled by many factors, including: phase composition and distribution in the overall microstructure, volume
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fraction, size and morphology of phase constituents, as well as stability of metastable constituents. The main feature of these steels is that they do not permit to rely on the wellestablished traditional microstructure-properties relationships. Therefore, many different alloy concepts and alternative processing routes are still under development by different steel producers for comparable steel grades.

5.WAVEFORM CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

Waveform Control Technology is the ability to customize waveform output. It is the ability to choose a weld program from a pre-defined set of programs, and to manipulate the parameters of that program to best fit your application.

Waveform Control Technology allows the user to choose from a library of pre-programmed weld modes that have been developed by expert welders. Then, Waveform Control Technology offers the opportunity to change thosevalues, within a programmed range, to find the combination of wire feed speed, voltage, current, and arc control that the application requires. The amount of current applied in varying time intervals can be charted as a

waveform. This waveform characterizes the weld output. Changing specific values during specific periods of the waveform directly affects the characteristics of the weld. Lincoln Waveform Control Technology Welding Systems use high-speed electronics to monitor the electrical signals from the welding arc and make appropriate changes to the current waveform. All the desired factors which control the welding arc from arc start to arc stop are written in software. Changes to the waveform can be made in real-time, (that is, during the weld), or after the weld if it is evident that the weld does not meet requirements.

5.1 ELECTRODE FORCE

The purpose of the electrode force is to squeeze the metal sheets to be joined together. This requires a large electrode force because else the weld quality will not be good enough. However, the force must not be too large as it might cause other problems. When the electrode force is increased the heat energy will decrease. This means that the higher electrode force requires a higher weld current. When weld current becomes too high spatter will occur between electrodes and sheets. This will cause the electrodes to get stuck to the sheet.

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An adequate target value for the electrode force is 90 N per mm2. One problem, though, is that the size of the contact surface will increase during welding. To keep the same conditions during the hole welding process, the electrode force needs to be gradually increased. As it is rather difficult to change the electrode force in the same rate as the electrodes are "mushroomed", usually an average value is chosen.

5.2 DIAMETER OF THE ELECTRODE CONTACT SURFACE

One general criterion of resistance spot-welding is that the weld shall have a nugget diameter of 5*t1/2, t being the thickness of the steel sheet. Thus, a spot weld made in two sheets, each 1 mm in thickness, would generate a nugget 5 mm in diameter according to the 5*t -rule. Diameter of the electrode contact surface should be slightly larger than the nugget diameter. For example, spot welding two sheets of 1 mm thickness would require an electrode with a contact diameter of 6 mm. In practice, an electrode with a contact diameter of 6 mm is standard for sheet thickness of 0.5 to 1.25 mm. This contact diameter of 6 mm conforms to the ISO standard for new electrodes.

5.3 SQUEEZE TIME

Squeeze Time is the time interval between the initial application of the electrode force on the work and the first application of current. Squeeze time is necessary to delay the weld current until the electrode force has attained the desired level.

5.4 WELD TIME

Weld time is the time during which welding current is applied to the metal sheets. The weld time is measured and adjusted in cycles of line voltage as are all timing functions. As the weld time is, more or less, related to what is required for the weld spot, it is difficult to give an exact value of the optimum weld time. For instance:

Weld time should be as short as possible. The weld current should give the best weld quality as possible. The weld parameters should be chosen to give as little wearing of the electrodes as possible. (Often this means a short weld time.)

The weld time shall cause the nugget diameter to be big when welding thick sheets.

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The weld time might have to be adjusted to fit the welding equipment in case it does not fulfil the requirements for the weld current and the electrode force. (This means that a longer weld time may be needed.)

The weld time shall cause the indentation due to the electrode to be as small as possible. (This is achieved by using a short weld time.)

The weld time shall be adjusted to welding with automatic tip-dressing, where the size of the electrode contact surface can be kept at a constant value. (This means a shorter welding time.)

When welding sheets with a thickness greater than 2 mm it might be appropriate to divide the weld time into a number of impulses to avoid the heat energy to increase. This method will give good-looking spot welds but the strength of the weld might be poor. By multiplying the thickness of the sheet by ten, a good target value for the weld time can be reached. When welding two sheets with the thickness 1 mm each, an appropriate weld time is 10 periods (50Hz).

5.5 HOLD TIME (COOLING-TIME)

Hold time is the time, after the welding, when the electrodes are still applied to the sheet to chill the weld. Considered from a welding technical point of view, the hold time is the most interesting welding parameter. Hold time is necessary to allow the weld nugget to solidify before releasing the welded parts, but it must not be too long as this may cause the heat in the weld spot to spread to the electrode and heat it. The electrode will then get more exposed to wear. Further, if the hold time is too long and the carbon content of the material is high (more than 0.1%), there is a risk the weld will become brittle. When welding galvanized carbon steel a longer hold time is recommended.

5.6 WELD CURRENT

The weld current is the current in the welding circuit during the making of a weld. The amount of weld current is controlled by two things; first, the setting of the transformer tap switch determines the maximum amount of weld current available; second the percent of current control determines the percent of the available current to be used for making the weld. Low percent current settings are not normally recommended as this may impair the quality of the

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weld. Adjust the tap switch so that proper welding current can be obtained with the percent current set between seventy and ninety percent. The weld current should be kept as low as possible. When determining the current to be used, the current is gradually increased until weld spatter occurs between the metal sheets. This indicates that the correct weld current has been reached.

5.7 SHEAR TENSION STRENGTH

Tensile Strength for a Bolt is determined by applying a Force along it long axis. Shear Strength for a Bolt is determined by applying a Force across its diameter, as it would be loaded in a lug joint. Tensile strength is strength in tension when pulling force is applied. And shear strength is strength against cutting force which is known as shear force. Shear strength is concerned mostly with strain whereas tensile strength with stress. something (say a rod) to withstand that force. When tensile force is applied on a rod, it does not break because of its tensile strength.The tensile strength of something is its ability to withstand pulling. For instance, the polymers of Kevlar are tightly bound therefore it has a high tensile strength because it does not easily pull apart. High tensile steel put simply is used where structures require high tensile strength. Tensile stress is where the forces on a material are "pulling" from each end away from the centre. Steel can be alloyed with certain materials such as aluminum to create a material that is stronger under tensile loading. An example of where high tensile steel is required is the cables. of the ANZAC bridge that support its deck. 6. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP The resistance spot welding experiments were performed using an inverter DC RSW equipment. Table 6.1 shows the details of the welding equipment used in this study. The resistance spot welding equipment use direct current rather than alternating current. The electrodes were dome-type with electrode face diameter of 6mm. Table 6.2 shows the range of welding process parameters. One cycle of welding time means 1/60 second. Strength would be the ability of

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The material used in this study was 1.2mm thick steel sheet of NHPA-1500 (Al-Si coated) and its chemical compositions are listed in Table 6.3 Table 6.4 indicates the mechanical properties of NHPA-1500 steel sheet. TABLE 6.1

Welding equipment details Input voltage Switch frequency Maximum welding current Welding current type Maximum electrode force 440VAC 1kHz 40 kA Direct current 500kgf/cm2

Table 6.2 Welding conditions

Parameter Weld current (kA) Weld Time (cycles) Electrode Force (kgf/cm2)

Condition 3~9 6~24 400, 500, 600

Table 6.3 Chemical composition of base metal (Weight, %) C 0.23 Si 0.26 Mn 1.24 P 0.015 S 0.002 Fe Bal.

Table 6.4 Mechanical properties of base metal(NHPA-1500) Yield strength(MPa) Tensile strength(MPa) Elongation (%) 1,280 1,530 8
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To evaluate weldability, shear tension strength test and macro-section test were carried out. For the shear tension strength test, Shimadzu Corporations Universal Tester, which can cover up to 30 tons of loads, was used. For the macro-section test, on the other hand, the nugget width was measured after etching of weld test specimen.

Fig 6.1 Example of a current/time welding lobe

A welding lobe is a graph indicating the evaluation of the resistance spot weldability that shows an appropriate welding range by changing two factors while fixing one factor of resistance spot welding process parameters such as electrode force, weld time, and weld current. In this paper, the weld current time lobe diagram was used with the electrode force fixed. The horizontal axis was set as the weld current, and the vertical axis as the weld time.

Figure 6.1 shows an example of the weld current-time welding lobe. The lower limit of welding current, the left boundary line of the welding lobe, was set to 9.4kN (minimum acceptable shear tension strength by AWS D8.1M:2007) while the upper limit, the right boundary line, was set depending on whether or not expulsion occurred.

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6.1 EXPERIMENTAL RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Fig 6.2 shows welding lobes for 1.2mm NHPA-1500 steel sheet, which were obtained through shear tension strength tests on NHPA-1500 steel sheet using inverter DC spot welding machine. In addition to suitable welding conditions, fracture modes were added to the welding lobe. In the welding lobe, round and diamond shapes are seen. The former represents an interfacial fracture mode while the latter stands for a plug fracture mode. Here, the interfacial fracture is a fracture type in the melting part while the plug fracture is a base metal-broken fracture type. In general, if a plug fracture occurs, it means that the melting part is stronger than the base metal

(a) Electrode force :400 kgf/cm2 force:600 kgf/cm2

(b) Electrode force:500 kgf/cm2

(c) Electrode

Fig. 6.2 Welding lobes for 1.2mm NHPA-1500 steel

In Fig 6. 2, acceptable shear tension strength has been observed at about 2kA of the current range. The acceptable current range stayed almost the same in all electrode force conditions. This result is different from general spot welding phenomenon that the increase of welding electrode force requires the increase of welding current to compensate for reduction of resistance heating due to decrease of contact area.

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6.2 NUGGET WIDTH

Fig. 6.3 shows weld nugget width at the weld time of 18cycles and the electrode force of 500kgf/cm2. As the welding current increases, weld nugget width also increases. .

Fig.6.3 weld nugget width for 1.2mm NHPA-1500 STEEL

In order to increase the acceptable welding current range, pulse current waveform control was introduced. Fig. 6.4(a) shows a conventional inverter welding current form and Fig. 6.4(b) is a current waveform of pulse type. Fig. 5 shows examples of real welding current wave forms.

(a) Conventional welding current form (b) Pulse welding current waveform Fig.6. 4 Schematic diagram of inverter DC spot welding current waveform.

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The pulse welding current waveform consists of two parts. One is heating part and the other is cooling part. In order to determine optimum heat time and cool time, several spot welding tests were performed. Table 6.6 shows welding parameter conditions.

`Table 6.6

Spot welding conditions for pulse current waveform control

One pulse time

No

Weld time (heat time + cool time) Heat time Cool time

300ms(18cycles)

DC

DC

420ms (300ms+120ms:30 pulses)

10ms

360ms (300ms+60ms:15 pulses)

20ms

340ms (300ms+40ms:10 pulses)

30ms

4ms

330ms (300ms+30ms:8 pulses)

40ms

324ms (300ms+24ms:6 pulses)

50ms

Fig. 6.6 shows the effect of heat time on weld strength for 1500MPa steel. In Fig. 6.6 heat time of 10ms and 20ms shows no expulsion but heat time of 30ms, 40ms, and 50ms shows expulsion. This experimental result shows that too much heat time

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produced expulsion easily and reduction of weld strength. From the Fig. 6.7 the heat time of 20ms was optimal condition. To verify that the pulse welding current waveform control is useful, resistance spot welding of NHPA-1500 steel sheet was performed using inverter DC spot welding machine with weld current waveform control. Welding conditions were as follows. Welding electrode force was fixed at 400kgf/cm2, cool time 4ms, and heat time 20ms. The weld time and weld current were changed. Fig. 6.7 shows the welding lobe which was obtained through shear tension strength test on NHPA-1500 steel sheet. Fig. 6.7 shows increase of acceptable welding range compared with Fig 6.6 (a).

Fig 6.6 Shear tension strength plot as a function of weld current waveforms

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fig 6.7 welding lobe for NHPA-1500 when using pulse welding current waveform

The conventional DC welding current type and the new pulse welding current type were same lower limit of welding current of about 5kA. However, acceptable maximum current limit of 7kA for pulse welding current control was obtained compared with 6kA or less for conventional DC current type. This test result showed that the intercycle cooling time of pulse welding current made spot welds less prone to expulsion at higher welding current.

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7.CONCLUSIONS

This study has evaluated the resistance spot weldability of 1500MPa steel sheet using conventional inverter DC spot welding system. In addition, pulse welding current rather than conventional DC current was introduced and its spot weldability was evaluated. The following results have been obtained: 1) The welding lobes for inverter DC spot welding of 1500MPa steel sheet have been determined. Acceptable shear tension strength was observed at about 2kA of welding current range. 2) The acceptable current range stayed almost the same in 3 electrode force conditions(400kgf/cm2,500kgf/cm2, 600kgf/cm2). 3) Pulse type welding current waveform control showed that it could reduce weld expulsion and increase acceptable welding current range.

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