Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

In this paper, resistance spot weldability of high-Mn steels were investigated in order to get high reliability in welded joints of automotive components. Microstructural characterizations, cross-tensile test (CTT), microhardness tests of spot welded parts were conducted. The effects of weld current on the microstructural characteristics, mechanical properties, and fracture modes were investigated using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The hardness in the weld nugget was observed to be lower than that in the base metal (BM). In CTT, the failure initiation was observed to occur at the boundary of the weld nugget. Also welding imperfections of welded parts were investigated. Liquation cracking in heat affected zone (HAZ), porosity, and shrinkage cavity were found most common welding defects in welded parts. Furthermore, the effects of welding imperfections on weld quality and failure criteria were identified and discussed.

With the development of pre-painted steel sheets for automotive body application, a new joining method is required such as hybrid joining with combination of adhesive bonding and mechanical joining. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of pre- and post-baking of adhesive bonding on failure mode and strength of hybrid joining of automotive steel sheets. Experiments show that the hybrid joining exhibits better bonding strength and displacement than conventional adhesive joining and mechanical fastening each. Comparison of pre- and post-baked hybrid joining results suggested that baking at 160℃ after mechanical joining was found to have higher joining properties than pre-baking condition. The pre-baking condition changed its fracture mode from interfacial to button fracture. The change in fracture mode with post-baking of hybrid joining was attributed to variation in neck thickness and undercut of joint.

Similar and dissimilar welds of dual-phase (DP) and high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels were made by fiber laser welding (FLW). The welds were characterized with respect to microstructure, micro- and nano-hardness, and tensile properties. The fusion zone (FZ) in the DP welds consisted of fully martensitic structure; whereas HSLA and dissimilar weld FZ microstructure were mixture of martensite and bainite. Analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed bainite structures containing bainitic ferrite laths with intralath and interlath cementite. Precipitation of single variant carbides inside the bainitic ferrite laths were confirmed by measuring the interplanar spacing. The cooling rate in the FZ, estimated using Rosenthal equation, and continuous-cooling-transformation diagrams corroborated the microstructure formed. Nanoindentation was used to verify the hardness of these individual microconstituents, since a much lower nano-hardness for bainite (4.11 GPa) was observed compared to martensite (6.57 GPa) phase. Tensile failure occurred in the tempered area of the heat affected zone (HAZ) in the DP steel welded, which was confirmed by typical cup-like dimple fracture; likewise failure in the HSLA base metal, which occurred in dissimilar and HSLA welds, indicated distinctive dimple and shear dimple ductile morphology.

Dual-phase steel with ferrite-martensite-bainite microstructure exhibited secondary hardening in the subcritical heat affected zone during fiber laser welding. Rapid isothermal tempering conducted in a Gleeble simulator also indicated occurrence of secondary hardening at 773 K (500 °C), as confirmed by plotting the tempered hardness against the Holloman–Jaffe parameter. Isothermally tempered specimens were characterized by analytic transmission electron microscopy and high-angle annular dark-field imaging. The cementite (Fe3C) and TiC located in the bainite phase of DP steel decomposed upon rapid tempering to form needle-shaped Mo2C (aspect ratio ranging from 10 to 25) and plate-shaped M4C3 carbides giving rise to secondary hardening. Precipitation of these thermodynamically stable and coherent carbides promoted the hardening phenomenon. However, complex carbides were only seen in the tempered bainite and were not detected in the tempered martensite. The martensite phase decomposed into ferrite and spherical Fe3C, and interlath-retained austenite decomposed into ferrite and elongated carbide.

In this work, the effects of the coating composition and the welding parameters on the heat generation and nugget formation during resistance spot welding of the hot press forming steels have been evaluated. Two types of coated steels were used, termed as Al–Si and Zn coating. Al–Si coated steel showed rapid nugget growth toward the electrode direction, which is the probable reason of the higher heat conduction from the electrode–sheet surface toward the bulk material. In Zn coated steel, heat was generated and localised at the faying interface and uniformly propagated to the steel substrate. High speed camera images showed that the presence of oxide at faying interface provides inhomogeneous current flow and violent heat generation in the Zn coated steel.

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights In this study, the heat affected zone (HAZ) liquation crack and segregation behavior of the resistance spot welded twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel have been reported. Cracks appeared in the post-welded joints that originated at the partially melted zone (PMZ) and propagated from the PMZ through the heat affected zone (HAZ) to the base metal (BM). The crack length and crack opening widths were observed increasing with heat input; and the welding current was identified to be the most influencing parameter for crack formation. Cracks appeared at the PMZ when nugget diameter reached at 4.50 mm or above; and the liquation cracks were found to occur along two sides of the notch tip in the sheet direction rather than in the electrode direction. Cracks were backfilled with the liquid films which has lamellar structure and supposed to be the eutectic constituent. Co-segregation of alloy elements such as, C and Mn were detected on the liquid films by electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) line scanning and element map which suggests that the liquid film was enrich of Mn and C. The eutectic constituent was identified by analyzing the calculated phase diagram along with thermal temperature history of finite element simulation. Preliminary experimental results showed that cracks have less/no significant effect on the static cross-tensile strength (CTS) and the tensile-shear strength (TSS). In addition, possible ways to avoid cracking were discussed.

This paper describes the main issues associated with resistance spot welding (RSW) for high-Mn austenitic twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels. Owing to rich chemistry which leads to complicated microstructure, and void formation in fusion zone (FZ) and eventually prone to early expulsion. Therefore, a dedication should be given to modify welding schedules. In this paper, a double pulse optimized schedules are adopted to maximize the weld lobe by improving the nugget sizes and suppressing expulsion. A double pulse schedule is optimized and comparisons are made with single pulse and three pulse ISO conditions. It is found that the nugget sizes are increased at about 15% which enlarged the tensile test failure load as well. Cross-tensile test (CTT) failure characteristics are observed in the sequences of: strain localization of both sheets, crack initiation at notch tip, crack followed fusion boundary, and finally ductile shear fracture along thickness direction. The welding impe...

The effect of an Al-Si coating on the microstructure and mechanical properties of fiber laser welded press hardened steel is examined in the present work. It is shown that mixing of the Al-Si coating significantly modified the fusion zone microstructure, which was found to be a combination of martensite and delta-ferrite in both the welded as-received, and hot stamped conditions. In contrast, a uniform distribution of alpha-ferrite and martensite was observed when the as-received sheet was welded then hot stamped. The ferrite phase was found to be rich in Al and Si, which retarded the kinetics of martensite formation; thus increasing ferrite fraction after hot stamping the welded coupon. Micro and nano-scale hardness measurements on ferrite suggest it is a softer phase compared to martensite; therefore, inducing strain localization and premature fracture during tensile tests. The strength of all welded joints were found to be dependent on ferrite phase fractions, since this promoted premature fracture, and deteriorated joint strength and ductility.

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