2014-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2014 Volume 5: Composite, Ceramic, Quasi-crystals, Nanomaterials & Coatings
| Editors: | Kongoli F |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | 578 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-07-2 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Influence of Zn interlayer / coating on the ultrasonic spot-welded al-to-cu and al-to-steel joints
Vikas Patel1; Sanjeev Bhole1; Daolun L. Chen1;1DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, Toronto, Canada;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 51
Topic: 6
Abstract:
Automotive and aerospace sectors have currently a pressing need for structural components that are lighter and stronger, aiming to improve energy efficiency and reduce anthropogenic climate-changing and environment-damaging emissions, while guaranteeing safety and reliability of vehicles. Lightweight aluminum has already a wide variety of structural applications in the transportation industry due to their excellent properties, such as good ductility, formability and thermal conductivity. The structural application of aluminum alloys inevitably involves welding and joining of dissimilar Al-to-steel and Al-to-copper, since both combinations have many potential engineering applications in the automotive and electronic industries, respectively. However, traditional fusion welding of dissimilar Al-to-steel and Al-to-Cu alloys is very challenging, since it produces coarse grains and some defects such as hot cracks. Thus, special attention has recently been paid to the solid-state welding processes.
Friction stir welding has been reported to generate brittle intermetallic compounds of Al3Fe and Al5Fe2 in the Al-to-steel dissimilar joints and Al2Cu and Al4Cu9 in the Al-to-Cu dissimilar joints, which decreases considerably the mechanical properties of the welded joints.
This study was aimed at exploring the potential of joining dissimilar Al-to-steel and Al-to-Cu alloys using another solid-state joining process - ultrasonic spot welding (USW) technique, and examining the formation mechanisms of the intermetallic compounds during USW using scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The effect of welding conditions on the interface microstructure and mechanical properties of the joints such as microhardness, lap shear strength, and fatigue life was evaluated. It was observed that a zinc interlayer placed in-between the two faying surfaces could be used to avoid the formation of the brittle intermetallic compounds, and thus to enhance the bonding strength of the welded joints. Details will be presented at the Symposium.