Resistance spot welding of advanced high strength steel for fabrication of thin-walled automotive structural frames

This investigation presents the process parameter optimization of resistance spot welded (RSW) advanced high strength steel (AHSS) joints using response surface methodology (RSM) for fabrication of thin-walled automotive structural frames. Resistance spot welding (RSW) is used to minimize solidification cracking, heat affected zone (HAZ) softening and distortion related problems in joining of thin advanced high strength steel (AHSS) sheets. The three factor – five level central composite design (3 × 5 - CCD) matrix pertaining to the minimum number of experiments was chosen for designing the experimental matrix. The polynomial regression analysis was employed to develop the empirical relationships between RSW parameters and performance characteristics of AHSS joints. The 3-dimensional (3D) response surfaces were developed using RSM which shows the optimal process window to enhance the strength of spot joints. The RSW joints made using welding current of 5.0 kA, electrode pressure of 4.0 MPa, and welding time of 1.50 s displayed maximum lap tensile shear fracture load (LAP-TSFL) of 21.7 kN, cross tensile shear fracture load (CROSS-TSFL) of 17.65 kN, and nugget zone hardness (NZH) of 589 HV 0.5 respectively. The results of ANOVA indicates that welding current, electrode pressure and welding time significantly influences the LAP-TSFL, CROSS-TSFL and NZH of joints respectively. The superior TSFL and NZH of joints made using optimized RSW parameters is attributed to the evolution of needle/lath martensite in nugget zone .