• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.2-7
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• 2003

Laser welding application for car body manufacturing has many advantages in the stiffness and the lightness of vehicle, the productivity of assembly line, and the degree of freedom in design. This presentation will express the innovation of car body manufacturing including parameter optimization, process modeling, and system integration. In this application the investment for systems was cut down dramatically by real time switching over the laser path between two welding stations. Points of technical discussion are as follows; optimization of parameters such as laser power, robot speed and trajectory, compact and useful design of jig & fixture to assure welding quality for 3 sheet-layer zinc-coated steel, system integration between 4㎾ Nd:YAG laser device and the other systems, on-line real time welding quality monitoring system, perfect safety standards for high power laser, minimization of consumption costs such as arc lamp, protective glass for optic, etc. This application was successfully launched mass production line in 2001. The laser-welded line of side panel consists of 122 stitches totally. And the length is about 2.4m.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.213-215
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• 2006

Application for laser welding have increased steadily in recent years due to its benefits such as high speed, high productivity and high density energy heat source. In this article these advantages of the laser welding has been considered for Nd:YAG laser stitch welding as a substitute for spot welding of lightweight car body plates. Optimized parameters for Nd:YAG laser stitch welding have been determined comparing the economical and mechanical characteristics to match with the currently used spot welding characteristics.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.162-164
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• 2003

Spot welding, a kind of electric resistance welding, has been used in many fields such as automobile, aircraft, and appliance industry. This paper is to investigate the relationship between tensile shear strength and indentation depth under various welding conditions. The tensile shear strength increases with increasing the welding current in the range of 6-l3kA. The optimum welding conditions were 200∼250kg welding force and 10∼15 cycles welding time at 9kA welding current for EZNCEN. The indentation depth for optimum welding condition was 0.6mm at 9kA welding curent and 200kg welding force, 0.17mm at 9kA welding current and 300kg welding force, 0.19mm at 9kA welding current and 10cycle, 0.17mm at 9kA welding current and 15cycle welding time, respectively.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.129-130
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• 2004

The stainless steel sheet which is one of primary barrier components for membrane on LNG ship is ordinarily welded by either TIG or PAW. The weld shapes of acceptant tolerance for membrane construction are scripted by G.T.T.(Gaztransport ＆ Technigaz)‘s rules such as penetration depth, weld throat and weld length etc. This paper presents relationship between weld metal shear strength and weld penetration formed with plasma arc welding. The results show penetration depth is not decisive factor on shear strength, but weld throat and length.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.102-104
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• 2003

Laser weldability of aluminized steels of 0.8mm thick has been investigated. Test materials were cut from the commercial steels that were produced at the Coating Mill of POCOS. Test coupons for welding were prepared by using a conventional shearing machine and no additional edge treatment was peformed. Nd:YAG laser welding system was mainly applied to make weld specimens. Test results revealed that almost no spattering was observed even though the welding was peformed with no overlap joint clearance. Bead quality of aluminized steel laser weld was smooth and stable. According to x-ray inspection results, it was proved that the laser welds of aluminized steels were metallurgically defect free.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2011

Weight reduction while maintaining functional requirements is one of the major goals in the automotive industry. The use of lightweight magnesium alloys offers great potential for reducing weight because of the low density of these alloys. However, the formability and the surface quality of the final magnesium alloy product for auto-body structures are not acceptable without a careful optimization of the design parameters. In order to overcome some of the main formability limitations in the stamping of magnesium alloys, a new approach, the so-called "hybrid technology", has been recently proposed for body-in-white structural components. Within this approach, necessary level of mechanical joining can be obtained through the use of lightweight material-steel adhesion promoters. This paper presents the development process of an automotive hybrid hood assembly using magnesium alloy sheets. In the first set of material pairs, the selected materials are magnesium alloy AZ31B alloy and steel(SGCEN) as inner and outer panels, respectively. In order to optimize the design of the inner panel, the stamping process was analyzed with the finite element method (FEM). Laser welding by CW Nd:YAG were used to join the magnesium alloy sheets. Based on the simulation results and mechanical test results of the joints, the determination of die design variables and their influence on formability were discussed. Furthermore, a prototype based on the proposed design was manufactured and the static stiffness test was carried out. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed hybrid hood with a weight reduction of 25.7%.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.36-38
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• 2007

The instability of the arc in the $CO_2$ arc welding affects the quality of the weld in the automotive industry. This paper evaluates the effects of the arc stability in $CO_2$ arc welding with respect to vertical welding positions. In this experiment, galva-annealed steel sheets(CA) were used as specimens, and these materials were welded by adopting new Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) process. For each sample, fillet joint welding trials were carried out using the same conditions. Each part of welding joints was welded with vertical-up, vertical-down position at $45^{\circ},\;90^{\circ}\;and\;135^{\circ}$ degrees. A high speed camera and a welding signal monitoring system were used for monitoring fluid-flow phenomena in weld pools and frequency measurements, respectively. Through this study, the welding position were found to be key factors mainly to influence the arc stability in $CO_2$ welding moreover and that the arc stability in the vertical-up welding position was observed to be more stable than the vertical-down welding position below $90^{\circ}$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) process is gaining popularity due to its many advantages. The SPR does not require a pre-drilled hole and has capability to join a wide range of similar or dissimilar materials and combinations of materials. This study investigated the fatigue strength of self-piercing rivet joint with aluminum alloy (Al-5052) and steel (SPCC) sheets. Static and fatigue tests on tensile-shear specimens were conducted. From the static strength aspect, the optimal punching force for the specimen with upper SPCC (U.S) sheet and lower aluminum alloy(L.A) sheets was 34 kN. During static test the specimens fractured in pull-out fracture mode due to influence of plastic deformation of joining area. There was a relationship between applied load amplitude $P_{amp}$ and number of cycles N ; $P_{amp}=19588N_f^{-0.211}$ and $P_{amp}=4885N_f^{-0.083}$ for U.S-L.A and U.A-L.S specimens, respectively. U.A-L.S fatigue specimens failed due to fretting crack initiation around the rivet neck between upper and lower sheets.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.66-70
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• 2012

Welding is an essential process in the automotive industry. Most welding processes that are used for auto body is spot welding. And $CO_2$ arc welding is used in a small part. In production field, $CO_2$ arc welding process is decreased and spot welding process is increased due to welding quality is poor and defects are occurred in $CO_2$ arc welding process frequently. But $CO_2$ arc welding process should be used at robot interference parts and closed parts where spot welding couldn't. $CO_2$ welding is divided into lap welding and plug arc spot welding. In case of plug arc spot welding, burn through and under fill were caused in various welding environment such as different thickness combinations of base metal, teaching point, over the two steps welding and inconsistent voltage/current. It makes some problem like poor quality of welding area and decrease the productivity. In this study, we will evaluate the effect of teaching point through the weld pool behavior and bead geometry in the arc spot welding at the plut hole. Welding position is horizontal position. And galvanized steel sheet of 2.0mm thickness that has plug hole of 6mm diameter was used. Teaching point was changed by center, top, bottom, left and right of the plug hole. At each condition, the phenomenon of weld pool behavior was confirmed using a high-speed camera. As the result, we find the center of plug hole is the most optimal teaching point. In the other teaching point, under fill was occurred at the plug hole. This phenomenon is caused by gravity and surface tension. For performance of arc spot welding at the plug hole, the teaching condition should be controlled at a center of plug hole.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.181-186
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• 2002

Laser welding application for car body manufacturing has many advantages in the stiffness and the lightness of vehicle, the productivity of assembly line, and the degree of freedom in design. This presentation will express the innovation of car body manufacturing including parameter optimization, process modeling, and system integration. In this application the investment for systems was cut down dramatically by real time switching over the laser path between two welding stations. Points of technical discussion are as follows: optimization of parameters such as laser power, robot speed and trajectory, compact and useful design of jig & fixture to assure welding quality for 3 sheet-layer zinc-coated steel, system integration between 4kW Nd:YAG laser device and the other systems, on-line real time welding quality monitoring system, perfect safety standards for high power laser, minimization of consumption costs such as arc lamp, protective glass for optic, etc. Laser welding has found a place on Hyundai's production plant in conjunction with the startup of mass production of new sports car, and this production system is the result of a collaboration of its engineers. Outer side sheets are joined to inner side sheets by 122 stitch welds totally. And the length is about 2.4meter.