TY - JOUR A1 - Schlichting, Joachim A1 - Brauser, Stephan A1 - Pepke, Lutz-Alexander A1 - Maierhofer, Christiane A1 - Rethmeier, Michael A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc T1 - Thermographic testing of spot welds JF - NDT & E international N2 - Spot welding is one of the most important technologies for joining sheet metal. While there are lot of approaches to non-destructive testing, quality assurance still mainly relies on welding parameter monitoring and destructive testing, leading to significant failure rates. In this paper an approach to spot weld testing using flash thermography is presented. The main focus of attention is on the identification of two typical error classes: stick welds and welds at the splash limit. Besides investigating the principal feasibility of thermography for zinc plated samples the results of a series test of spot welds joining 1 mm thick TRIP steel are shown. Based upon these results a statistical criterion is developed which allows a reliable classification of the named error classes. KW - Thermography KW - Spot welding KW - Automotive industry PY - 2012 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ndteint.2012.02.003 SN - 0963-8695 VL - 48 SP - 23 EP - 29 PB - Butterworth-Heinemann CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-26276 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -