Spot Welding Parameter Optimization to Improve Weld Characteristics for Dissimilar Metals

Abstract Resistance spot welding is a process which is widely used in the automotive industry to join steel parts of various thicknesses and types. The current practice in the automotive industry in determining the welding schedule which will be used in the welding process is based on welding table or experiences. This however may not be the optimum welding schedule that will give the best spot weld quality. This work concentrates on the parameter optimization when spot welding steels with dissimilar thickness and type using Grey Based Taguchi Method. The experimentation in this work used a L9 orthogonal array with three factors with each factor having three levels. The three factors used are welding current weld time and electrode force. The three weld characteristics that were optimized are weld strength weld nugget diameter and weld indentation. The analysis of variance ANOVA that was carried out showed that welding current gave the most significant contribution in the optimum welding schedule. The comparison test that was carried out to compare the current welding schedule and the optimum welding schedule showed distinct improvement in the increase of weld diameter and weld strengthas well as decrease in electrode indentation.