Characterization of Spot Weld Growth on Dissimilar Joints with Different Thicknesses

Abstract

A sound weld from spot welding is what most manufacturers desire and prefer for mechanical assemblies in their systems. The robustness is mainly attributed to the joining mechanism of mechanical parts. This paper focuses on the effect of parametric changes for dissimilar joints using 304 austenitic stainless steel and carbon steel of two different thicknesses. A pneumatic-based spot welder was used to accomplish the entire welding process. The parameters varied during the experiments are the welding current and welding time, while the electrode pressing force and electrode tip size are kept constant. The welding process began from a poor weld and moved on to a better weld by increasing the process parameters. However, this study is limited to the basic parametric variation to find the optimum parametric setup for 1 and 2 mm base metals. The welded specimens are subjected to tensile, hardness and metallurgical tests to characterise the spot weld growth for both thicknesses.