Resistance Spot Welding Steel to Aluminium

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Back to Core Research Programme AMorph – 4D Printing for Field Morphing Structures Automation of Composite and Hybrid Joining Process Coaxial Wire Additive Manufacturing Processes and In-Line Monitoring Tools Development of Coded Excitation Technique for Non-Metallic Pipes Inspection Development of Digital Twin technology as a demonstrator for real-time integrity assessment of crack growth in tensile specimens Development of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) for Hydrogen Fuel Storage Tanks Development of Leak-Before-Break Hydrogen Storage Composite Pressure Vessels With Polymeric Liner Establishing Assessment Methods for Determining Safe Service Limits of High-Temperature Materials in Extreme Environments Fracture toughness in aggressive environments: effect of crack monitoring techniques on test results In-process detection and non-destructive testing of electron beam weld imperfections Internal Bore Coatings for Applications in Corrosion and Hydrogen Environment Joining of Additively Manufactured Materials Long term behaviour of polymeric liner materials/coatings in hydrogen service Techniques for High Temperature Ultrasonic Inspection of Arc Welding Ultimate Leverage Fund

Project Code: 23022

Industrial Need

The automotive sector is driven to reduce vehicle weight to achieve present and future performance and emission targets. Many car companies see a multi materials strategy as the best way to achieve weight savings, with a hybrid structure of steel and aluminium being a goal of many automotive producers.

In order to produce a car body rapidly and economically a high speed low cost joining process is required. Over the last 100 years of car production, the fastest, most reliable and lowest cost joining technique has proven to be resistance spot welding. Additionally nearly all car producers have a heavy investment in resistance welding production lines and are familiar with this technology. But the present state of technology does not allow direct resistance spot welding of steel to aluminium. If a solution can be found to allow direct spot welding of steel to aluminium using conventional resistance spot welding equipment, the production of a multi metal car body could become technically feasible and very economic.

The subject of this investigation is to use a third material as an intermediate layer between steel and aluminium plates, to allow the production of high quality spot welds.

Objectives

Design and manufacture transition discs for use in welding trials, identify suitable disc material and geometries for the disc that allow the disc to heat preferentially to the parent materials.

Produce high quality transition joints in two dissimilar materials combinations relevant to the automotive industry.

Assess joint quality and determine if conventional NDT techniques can be applied.

Project Outline

It was proposed to trial a range of commercially available thin sheet (foil) materials as potential inter layers to allow resistance spot welding of automotive grade steel to aluminium. The welds produced were to be qualified against automotive industry acceptance criteria.

Relevant Industry Sectors

Automotive