• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.104-109
• /
• 2010

Lap joint friction stir welding(LFSW) is an relatively new solid state joining process. A6061-T6 aluminium alloy has gathered wide acceptance in the fabrication of light weight structures requiring a high strength to weight ratio and good corrosion resistance. Test methods used in this paper, lock-in thermography, a phase difference between the defect area and the healthy area indicates the qualitative location and size of the defect. In this paper, the defects detected from the thermal image of mechanical properties for weld were evaluated and compared by the lock-in infrared thermography technique.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.135-144
• /
• 2019

Electromagnetic impulse welding (EMIW) is a type of solid state welding using the Lorentz force generated by interaction between the magnetic field of the coil and the current induced in the workpiece. Although many experimental studies have been investigated on the expansion and compression welding of tube using the EMIW process, studies on the EMIW process of lap joint between flat sheets are uncommon. Since the magnetic field enveloped inside the tube can be controlled with ease, the electromagnetic technique has been widely used for tube welding. Conversely, it is difficult to control the magnetic field in the flat sheet welding so as to obtain the required welding velocity. The current study analyzed the effects of coil shape on the impulse velocity for suitable flat one-turn coil for the EMIW of the flat sheets. The finite element (FE) multi-physics simulation involving magnetic and structural field of EMIW were conducted with the commercial software LS-DYNA to evaluate the several shape variables, viz., influence of various widths, thicknesses, gaps and standoff distances of the flat one-turn coil on the impulse velocity. To obtain maximum impulse velocity, the flat one-turn coil was designed based on the FE simulation results. The experiments were performed using an aluminum alloy 1050 sheets of 1.0mm thickness using the designed flat one-turn coil. Through the microscopic interfacial analysis of the welded specimens, the interfacial connectivity was observed to have no defects. In addition, the single lap joint tests were performed to evaluate the welding strength, and a fracture occurred in the base material. As a result, a flat one-turn coil was successfully designed to guarantee welding with bond strength equal to or greater than the base material strength.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.28 no.8 s.227
• /
• pp.1174-1182
• /
• 2004

Recently, Self Piercing Rivet(SPR) has been spotlighted in the automotive industry as a substitutive resort of spot welding and has also been watched by the designer as lightening a car body due to their superior assembly processes. Fatigue behavior of SPR joint needs to be investigated experimentally and numerically to predict its structural stiffness and fatigue life. Testing of lap-shear specimens with various material combinations is performed to obtain the joining strength and the fatigue life of SPR connections. The simulation of SPR lap-shear specimens is also conducted to obtain the structural stiffness of SPR connections under different material combinations. A Finite element model of the SPR lap-shear specimen is developed using a FEMFAT SPR pre-processor. The fatigue lift of SPR specimen is predicted using a FEMFAT 4.4e based on the liner finite element analysis.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.100-110
• /
• 1998

In this paper, the laser weldability of thin gage steels for automobile application is discussed. Welding was carried out with a high power carbon dioxide laser system, and the laser energy was concentrated through a plano-convex lens. Test results showed that the joint gap in the butt welding proved to be one of the critical conditions for an acceptable weld. In the case where the ratio of the gap clearance to the material thickness was slightly bigger than optimal value, the weld strength was reduced showing weld metal fracture. It was possible to obtained a weld penetration ratio of 0.91 when the vertical offset ratio was controlled to be 0.4 or smaller. Results also demonstrated that the weld strength of the lap joint was influenced by travel speed. At the travel speeds lower than 37 mm/s, the weld strength indicated higher value than that of class A recommendation strength of a resistance spot weld based on the KS code. It was clear that the complicated effect of specimen alignment should be considered so as to make a sound weld with high integrity when the laser process was applied to the long weld line.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.34 no.10
• /
• pp.1507-1512
• /
• 2010

In this study, the plasma induced by $CO_2$ laser lap welding of 6t Zn coated steel used for ship building was measured using photodiodes and a microphone. Then, the welding phenomenon with gap clearance of lap joint was compared with RMS-treated signal. Thus, we found that intensity of the RMS-treated signal increased with Zn vaporization; further, the presence of defects results in rapid variations with the RMS value as a function of lap-joint parameters. Besides, the FFT value of the raw signal with variations of changing welding parameters was calculated, and then the calculated FFT frequency value was set as the bandwidth of digital filter for a more accurate in-process monitoring. The RMS values were acquired by filtering the raw signal. By matching the weld beads and the calculated RMS values, we confirmed that there is a strong relationship between the signals and the defects.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.77-87
• /
• 1998

This paper deals with the effect of laser welding parameters on the weld formation. Thin steels for automotive application were prepared so as to be welded with high power carbon dioxide laser system. Major process parameters were position of focus and travel speed. The effect of shielding gas was also discussed by employing the high speed photometry. Test results showed that the optimal position of focus varied in accordance with the joint configuration; bead-on-plate, butt or lap welding. It was recommended that the position of focus for the lap welding be located at slightly inner part of the material to be welded. In this case, however, it was noticeable that the weld penetration ratio, d/t$_{0}$ dropped drastically at the critical region. Results also demonstrated that both the bead width and penetration reduced as the travel speed increased. The penetration ratio showed two distinct regions; stabilized zone at the lower range of the travel spped and sudden drop zone at the higher range of travel speed. Lower limit of the penetration for acceptable weld was proved to be about 90% of the parent metal thickness based on the physical properties of the weld. Mixed gas application for both the shielding of molten metal and laser induced plasma control was recommended as far as the penetration was concerned.d.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.208-214
• /
• 2001

In this study, we constructed a visual sensor system for weld seam tracking in real time in GMA welding. A sensor part consists of a CCD camera, a band-pass filter, a diode laser system with a cylindrical lens, and a vision board for inter frame process. We used a commercialized robot system which includes a GMA welding machine. To extract the weld seam we used a inter frame process in vision board from that we could remove the noise due to the spatters and fume in the image. Since the image was very reasonable by using the inter frame p개cess, we could use the simplest way to extract the weld seam from the image, such as first differential and central difference method. Also we used a moving average method to the successive position data or weld seam for reducing the data fluctuation. In experiment the developed robot system with visual sensor could be able to track a most popular weld seam. such as a fillet-joint, a V-groove, and a lap-joint of which weld seam include planar and height directional variation.

• Laser Solutions
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2010

The in-process monitoring of $CO_2$ welding of Zn-coated steel plates has been studied and compared with that of conventional thin plates. Relationships between weld defects and plasma emission signals were evaluated in laser lap joint of thick Zn-coated steel. According to the study, weld defects were found to increase with Zn content. As a result, measured plasma emission signals also decreased. In case of plate with $15{\mu}m$-thick Zn-coated layer, defects caused by evaporation of Zn could, therfore, controled by gap of 0.1mm, resulting in a stable emission signals. However, the amplitude of signals fluctuated very widely. Variation of amplitude sould be limited in 3-8V by FFT smoothing.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.71-76
• /
• 2006

In this study, the microstructure and mechanical properties of spot friction stir welded A 5052 alloy were investigated. Especially, the effect of insertion depth of welding tool on microstructural changes and mechanical properties was investigated in order to obtain the optimum spot friction stir welding condition. The lap shear load of spot friction stir welded A 5052 alloy plates showed lower value at the shallowest insertion depth and increased with tool insertion depth. At 1.6mm, the maximum value of 3.35 kN was obtained, and then dropped to lower load when the insertion depth was deeper. Spot friction stir welded joints showed shear fracture mode at shallower insertion depths and fracture mode changed to plug fracture mode as the insertion depth was deeper.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.48 no.6
• /
• pp.533-542
• /
• 2010

The specific motivation for joining an Al alloy and Zn-coated steel arises from the need to save fuel consumption by weight reduction and to enhance the durability of vehicle structures in the automobile industry. In this study, the lap joining A6K31 Al alloy (top) and SGARC340 Zn-coated steel (bottom) sheets with a thickness of 1.0 mm and 0.8 mm, respectively, was carried out using the friction stir weld (FSW) technique. The probe of a tool did not contact the surface of the lower Zn-coated steel sheet. The friction stir welding was carried out at rotation speeds of 1500 rpm and travel speeds of 80~200 mm/min. The effects of tool geometry and welding speed on the mechanical properties and the structure of a joint were investigated. The tensile properties for the joints welded with a larger tool were better than those for the joints done with a smaller tool. A good correlation between the tensile load and area of the welded region were observed. The bond strength using a larger tool (M4 and M3) decreased with an increase in welding speed. Most fractures occurred along the interface between the Zn-coated steel and the Al alloy. However, in certain conditions with a lower welding speed, fractures occurred at the A6K31 Al alloy.