• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2022

The current study performed formability analysis of a heat exchanger separator for an electric vehicle to apply a high-strength aluminum sheet based on parametric analysis. Mechanical properties for sheet metal forming simulation were evaluated by tensile test, bulge test, and Nakajima test. Two-stage crash forming was established by considering the mass production process using conventional low-strength aluminum sheets. In this study, FEM for the two-stage forming process was conducted to optimize the corner radius and height for improving the formability. In addition, the possibility of a one-stage forming process application was confirmed through FEM. The prototype of the sample was manufactured as FEM results to validate the parametric analysis. Finally, this result can provide a one-stage forming process design method using the high-strength aluminum sheet for weight reduction of a heat exchanger separator for an electric vehicle.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.15 no.4
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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.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.61-68
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• 2021

As part of efforts to reduce the weight of automotive body-in-white, a hybrid center pillar with high strength 7075 aluminum alloy (AA7075) sheet and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been recently studied. In the fabrication of the AA7075-CFRP hybrid center pillar, the AA7075 sheet might go through heating-forming-in-die quenching (HFQ), artificial aging, hybridizing, and then paint baking processes. In this study, we investigate the effects of the heat treatment history associated with each process on the tensile strength of the AA7075 sheet. Typical heat treatment conditions are HFQ for 20 minutes at 480℃ and then cooling down with die, artificial aging of T6 temper for 24 hours at 120℃, hybridizing for 10 minutes at 150℃, and paint baking for 20 minutes at 180℃. The tensile strength of the AA7075 sheet is continuously increased by a series of heat treatments of hybridizing and paint baking and is expected to have yield stress above 500MPa without artificial aging of T6 temper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.401-404
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is investigating the joint characteristics of advanced high strength steel DP780 and Al5052 alloy sheet in the clinching process. It is difficult to join the advanced high strength steel with light-weight materials like aluminum alloy, because of low formability of DP780. The defects of clinching joint such as necking of the upper sheet, cracks of the lower sheet and no interlocking were occurred by different ductility between advanced high strength steel and aluminum alloy. The clinching conditions should be optimized to interlock without any defects. In this study, the effect of process parameters of clinching process on joinability of advanced high strength steel with Al5052 alloy was investigated by using FE-analysis. From the result of FE-analysis, the clearance between clinching punch and die, die depth and the shape of die cavity mainly affected the joinability of advanced high strength steel with Al5052 alloy.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.379-383
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• 2001

Resistance spot welding has been widely used in the sheet metal joining processes because of low cost, high productivity and convenience. Recently, automobile and aerospace industries are trying to replace partly steel sheets with aluminum alloy sheets. But in the case of dissimilar materials, to apply resistance spot welding has been known to be very difficult owing to the effect of melting temperature. On this study, an effort was made to apply spot welding of dissimilar sheet metals, 2024 aluminum alloy and zinc coated steel sheet, evaluate the spot weld quality with tensile-shear strength test and nondestructive evaluation technique, C-scan image methodology. In this study results, as the current below 11 kA, melting of materials is not achieved well. Also as the current exceeds to 13.5 kA, the more spatters happen at welded zone and tensile-shear strength lowered. So, the feasibility of C-scan image technique proposed in the study is found to be suitable evaluation method for resistance spot weldability.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1322-1327
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• 2007

Many automotive companies have tried to apply the aluminum alloy sheet to car body because reducing the car weight can improve the fuel efficiency of vehicle. In order to do that, sheet materials require of weldablity, formability, productivity and so on. Aluminum alloy was not easy to join these metals due to its material properties. Thus, the laser is good heat source for aluminum alloy welding because of its high heat intensity. However, the welding quality was not good by porosity, underfill, and magnesium loss in welded metal for AA5182 aluminum alloy. In this study, Nd:YAG laser welding of AA 5182 with filler wire AA 5356 was carried out to overcome this problem. The weldability of AA5182 laser welding with AA5356 filler wire was investigated in terms of tensile strength and Erichsen ratio. For full penetration, mechanical properties were improved by filler wire. In order to optimize the process parameters, model to estimate tensile strength by artificial neural network was developed and fitness function was defined in consideration of weldability and productivity. Genetic algorithm was used to search the optimal point of laser power, welding speed, and wire feed rate.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.229-241
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• 2021

This work focused on aluminum foam sandwich (AFS) with different foam core densities and different face-sheet thicknesses subjected to constant amplitude three-point bending cyclic loading to study its fatigue performance. The experiments were conducted out by a high frequency fatigue test machine named GPS-100. The experimental results showed that the fatigue life of AFS decreased with the increasing loading level and the structure was sensitive to cyclic loading, especially when the loading level was under 20%. S-N curves of nine groups of AFS specimens were obtained and the fatigue life of AFS followed three-parameter lognormal distribution well. AFS under low cyclic loading showed pronounced cyclic hardening and the static strength after fatigue test increased. For the same loading level, effects of foam core density and face-sheet thickness on the fatigue life of AFS structure were trade-off and for the same loading value, the fatigue life of AFS increased with aluminum foam core density or face-sheet thickness monotonously. Core shear was the main failure mode in the present study.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.17-22
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• 2019

Currently, studies on weight reduction and fuel efficiency increase are the most important topics in the automotive industry and many studies are under way. Among them, weight reduction is the best way to raise fuel efficiency and solve environmental pollution and resource depletion. Materials such as aluminum, magnesium and carbon curing materials can be found in lightweight materials. Among these, research on improvement of bonding technology and manufacturing method of materials and improvement of material properties through study of ultrahigh strength steel sheet is expected to be the biggest part of material weight reduction. As the strength of the ultra hight strength steel sheet increases during forming, it is difficult to obtain the dimensional accuracy as the elastic restoring force increases compared to the hardness or high strength steel sheet. It is known that the spring back phenomenon is affected by various factors depending on the raw material and processing process. We have conducted analytical evaluations and studies to analyze the springback that occurs according to the cross-sectional shape of the ultra high tensile steel sheet.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.55-59
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• 2015

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) is a sheet-joining method that can be used for materials that are difficult or unsuitable for weld, such as aluminum alloys and other steel sheet metals. The increased application of lightweight materials has initiated many investigations into new SPR conditions for riveting dissimilar materials. However, buckling of the semi-tubular rivet occurs during the riveting of AHSS. In this study, a helical SPR was designed for the riveting of AHSS and Al-alloy. In addition, the reinforced helical SPR which has straight parts was designed. The riveting of AHSS and Al-alloy was simulated. Simulated results were verified by comparison with experimental ones.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.348-355
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• 2017

In recent years, dissimilar materials such as aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and advanced high strength steel are widely used in automotive body due to environment concerns and fuel consumption. Therefore, joining technology is important for assembling components made of dissimilar materials. In this study, friction stir hole clinching (FSHC) was proposed as a new mechanical joining method to join dissimilar materials. This process stirs and heats the upper sheet, forming mechanical interlocking with the lower sheet. The feasibility of this FSHC process was verified by comparing cross-section of joint in FSHC and hole clinching process under the same processing condition. Taguchi method was also applied to the FSHC process to estimate the effect of process parameters on joint strength and obtain optimal combination of process parameters. Joint strength of FSHC with optimal process condition was compared to that of FSHC with initial process condition as well as that of hole clinching with optimal process condition. Results showed that the FSHC process was useful for joining dissimilar materials, even if the formability of materials was low.