Variation causes analysis attributed to different metrological instruments to verify the geometric characteristics of a spot welding process

Abstract

In this study, we sought to analyze the variability of instruments used in industry to evaluate the geometric characteristics of a welding point. For this purpose, the design of experiments technique was used to generate a fractional factorial design for the welding parameter configurations in test specimens of hot dip galvanized steels in order to represent the real amplitude of the resistance spot welding process. For the analyzes, the repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) study was used by the analysis of variance method to identify the variation components of the measurement system by evaluating three different instruments, comparing the measurements performed by an image analyzer, from the metallography and measurements of conventional metrology instruments such as the dial-gauge and the caliper. Two quality characteristics were evaluated: indentation depth and nugget width. From the results it was possible to verify that the image analyzer presented a lower variability in the measurements, being the best choice for the measurements of the quality responses of the spot welding process, presenting a GR&R classified as acceptable.