Enabling Dissimilar Joining of Coated Steels to Aluminum through
Impact Spot Welding 05-14-01-0004
This also appears in
SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing-V130-5EJ
Direct welding of coated steels to aluminum alloys is challenging due to high
energy requirements, decreased weldability, and unstable weld quality. The
present study reports the application of a new design approach in vaporizing
foil actuator welding (VFAW), where an asymmetric preform shape on the target
sheet generated the requisite standoff, enabling direct spot welding of a
typical automotive aluminum alloy (6022 T4) and two different zinc-coated
steels, galvanized high-strength low-alloy 350 and galvannealed dual-phase 590.
The use of the new approach enabled for the first time the ability to spot weld
through coating without any preweld surface preparation. Characterization using
lap-shear and peel testing revealed strong joints for both the weld pairs (AA
6022 T4-HSLA 350 and AA 6022 T4-DP 590). The weld interface characterized by
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a hierarchical structure and the
presence of a typical wavy region.
Citation: Kapil, A., Mao, Y., Vivek, A., and Daehn, G., "Enabling Dissimilar Joining of Coated Steels to Aluminum through Impact Spot Welding," SAE Int. J. Mater. Manf. 14(1):33-43, 2021, https://doi.org/10.4271/05-14-01-0004. Download Citation