• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1990.10a
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• pp.362-366
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• 1990

The resistance spot welding process has been extensively used for joining of sheet metals, which are subject to variation of many process variables. Many qualitative analyses of sampled process variables have been successfully attempted to achieve a uniform nugget size. In this paper, the electrode movement signal which is a good indicative of the nugget size was examined by introducing a mathematical model with four parameters. A neural network method was applied for the estimation of the nugget size by four parameters. The prediction by the neural network is in good agreement with the actual nugget size. The results are quite promising in that the qualitative estimation of the invisible nugget size can be achieved without destructive testing of the welds.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1992.10a
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• pp.91-95
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• 1992

The resistance spot welding process has been extensively used for joining of sheet metals, which are subject to variation of many process variables. Many qualitive analyses of sampled process variables have been attempted to predict nugget size. In this paper, dynamic resistance and electrode movement signal which is a good indicative of the nugget size was examined by introducing an artificial neural network estimator. An artificial neural feedforward network with back-propagation of error was applied for the estimation of the nugget size. The prediction by the neural network is in good agreement with the actual nugget size for resistance spot welding of galvanized steel. The results are quite promising in that the quantitative estimation of the invisible nugget size can be achieved without conventional destructive testing of welds.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.43-45
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• 2000

Resistance Spot Welding has been one of the important process in the sheet metal fabrication of auto-body industry It is well known that the nugget formation of RSW is the major factor for the strength of the body. A high speed camera was used to consider initial melting and growth of the weld nugget in order to find out the nugget formation mechanism. It was observed that such mechanism had an effect on the dynamic resistance, which was a process parameter of resistance spot welding. Also, the relationship between the mechanism and process parameter was considered for the industrial application.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.27-41
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• 1993

The estimation of nugget sizes was attempted by utilizing the artificial neural networks method. Artificial neural networks is a highly simplified model of the biological nervous system. Artificial neural networks is composed of a large number of elemental processors connected like biological neurons. Although the elemental processors have only simple computation functions, because they are connected massively, they can describe any complex functional relationship between an input-output pair in an autonomous manner. The electrode head movement signal, which is a good indicator of corresponding nugget size was determined by measuring the each test specimen. The sampled electrode movement data and the corresponding nugget sizes were fed into the artificial neural networks as input-output pairs to train the networks. In the training phase for the networks, the artificial neural networks constructs a fuctional relationship between the input-output pairs autonomusly by adjusting the set of weights. In the production(estimation) phase when new inputs are sampled and presented, the artificial neural networks produces appropriate outputs(the estimates of the nugget size) based upon the transfer characteristics learned during the training mode. Experimental verification of the proposed estimation method using artificial neural networks was done by actual destructive testing of welds. The predicted result by the artifficial neural networks were found to be in a good agreement with the actual nugget size. The results are quite promising in that the real-time estimation of the invisible nugget size can be achieved by analyzing the process variable without any conventional destructive testing of welds.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.55-59
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• 2004

Spot welding is a very important and useful technology in fabrication of thin sheet structures such as the parts in an automobile. However, because the fatigue strength of the spot welding point is considerably lower than that of the base metal due to stress concentration at the nugget edge, the nugget size must be estimated to evaluate a reasonable fatigue strength at a spot welded lap joint. So far, many investigators have experimentally studied the estimation of fatigue strengths of various spot weldments by using a destructive method. However, these destructive methods poses problems so testing of weldments by these methods are difficult. Furthermore, these methods cannot be applied to a real product, and are time and cost consuming, as well. Therefore, there has been a strong, continual demand for the development of a nondestructive method for estimating nugget size. In this study, the effective nugget size in spot weldments have been analyzed by using thermoelastic stress analysis adopting infrared thermography. Using the results of the temperature distribution obtained by analysis of the infared stress due to adiabatic heat expansion under sinusoidal wave stresses, the effective nugget size in spot welded specimens were estimated. To examine the evaluated effective nugget size in spot weldments, it was compared with the results of microstructure observation from a 5％ Nital etching test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.301-306
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• 2003

Spot welding is frequently used for industrial purpose, such as automobile and aerospace industries and household appliances due to its high performance. In these day, robotization and systemization of welding process made it possible to produce more precise or smaller electric parts. And when it comes to welding of steel sheet, the size of nugget must be getting smaller. Therefore, welding conditions are limited to avoid defects, such as deformation, damage, weakening of joining area. In this research, the measurement of the nugget size by the nondestructive inspection has been conducted. As a result, the right estimation of the nugget size and void defects, the detection of corona bond near joining area, the selection of the optimum ultrasonic mode, and set up for ultrasonic inspection are studied. From the trustworthy solutions of nugget size estimated by results of measurement, the optimum inspection conditions depending upon the width of welding parts are determined as well.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.209-214
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• 2005

Spot welding is the most widely used in automotive and aerospace industries. The quality of weld depends upon the size of nugget between the overlapped steel plates. Recently, the thickness of the steel plates is much thinner and hence, it introduces the smaller size of nugget. Therefore, it is necessary not only to develop the criterion to evaluate the quality of weld but also to obtain the optimal welding conditions for the better performance. In this paper, the steel plates, 0.5 mm through 1.5 mm thickness, have been spot welded at different welding conditions and the nugget sizes are examined by ultrasonic technique (C-scan type). The relationships between the nugget sizes and the weldability have been investigated. The result of ultrasonic technique shows the good agreement with that of the tensile test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.49-53
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• 2004

Thin spot welding is frequently used for industrial purpose, such as automobile and aerospace industries and household appliances due to its high performance. In these days, the systemization of welding process made it possible to produce more precise or smaller electric parts. And when it comes to welding of steel sheets, the size of nugget must be getting smaller. Therefore, welding conditions are limited to avoid defects, such as deformation, damage and weakening of joining area. In this research, thin spot welding establishes the welding conditions, and then the measurement of the nugget size by the nondestructive inspection has been conducted. As a result, the right estimation of the nugget size, the detection of corona bond near joining area, the selection of the optimum ultrasonic mode, and setup for ultrasonic inspection are studied. From the trustworthy solutions of the nugget size estimated by results of measurement, the optimum inspection conditions depending upon the width of welding parts are determined as well.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.113-118
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• 1999

In order to evaluate strength of spot welded joint, at first it is importent that we should know strain distribution near nugget zone. During loading, in HAZ, compressive strain increase with Increase of load, but in nugget zone tensile strain increase. During unloading, on the other hand, even through the decreases, the strain variation is not almost appeared in nugget zone and HAZ. In nugget boundary zone, the strain range increases continuously along with load increase on outer surface, but the strain increases continunously and decreases rapidly beyond yield strength on inner surface. In this paper, strain distribution are measured in inner and outer surface with variation of thickness and load under tensile-shear load. Tensile-shear strength increased as with increase of specimen thickness. As for thickness increase rates are 25%, 50%, 100%, and 150%, tensile-shear strength in crease rates are 40%, 81%, 130% and 228%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.74-79
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• 2005

Spot welding widely used in automotive and aerospace industries has made it possible to produce more precise and smaller electric part by robotization and systemization of welding process. The quality of welding depends upon the size of nugget between the overlapped steel plates. Recently, the thickness of the steel plates becomes much thinner and hence, it introduces the smaller size of nugget. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the criterion to evaluate the quality of weld in order to obtain the optimal welding conditions for the better performance. In this paper, a thin steel plates, 0.1mm through 0.3mm thickness, have been spot-welded at different welding conditions and the nugget sizes are examined by defocused scanning microscopy. The relationships between nugget sizes and weldability have been investigated experimentally. The result of ultrasonic technique shows the good agreement with that of the tensile test.