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- Resistance spot welding (2) (entfernen)
The safe joining of new, freshly developed steel types keeps challenging the industry–and is assumed to go on in doing so. In the body-in-white production, these materials are mainly joined using resistance spot welding. During the past ten years, various investigations on resistance spot welding of advanced high strength steels have been carried out at Fraunhofer IPK and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). This paper aims to give an overview about both the top former and recent studies and results. The investigated topics are the influences of manufacturing conditions as initial gaps and restraints on spot welds, their impact on the fatigue strength of a joint and the cracking-wise safe weldability of AHSS.
Caused by non-ideal manufacturing conditions, cracks in spot welds (e.g. caused by liquid metal embrittlement) are still regarded as a potential risk in industrial practice. Therefore, a method to evaluate the safe weldability regarding the cracking susceptibility was developed for AHSS. The method is easy to perform, even without expensive laboratory equipment. It allows the end user to establish a material ranking regarding the cracking susceptibility of the handled steels. Recently, coupled thermo-mechanical finite element modelling has been used to describe critical stress-strain conditions responsible for the occurrence of liquid metal embrittlement, and to improve the understanding of the process.
The complex microstructure and the advanced mechanical properties of AHSS steel types lead to an increased susceptibility to weld cracking, especially during resistance spot welding under ‘rough’ manufacturing conditions.
Various activities have been conducted in recent years at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and the Fraunhofer IPK on this matter. Understandings about the safe spot weldability and the process of crack-forming itself were gained, and solutions for handling this issue given.
The performed work includes investigations on the influence of initial gaps as well as restraint intensity. An experimental method for the determination of the general cracking susceptibility, i.e. a material ranking of AHSS in respective to current restraints was developed. Coupled mechanical and thermal simulations of the welding process show the present internal stress-strain-conditions and values responsible for the formation of cracks, deepening the understanding of the process.
By using this easy to perform and material-independent method for the determination of the cracking susceptibility in resistance spot welded joints, small and medium sized companies can profit by rapidly evaluating the joinability of their handled material combinations as well as OEMs.