Influence of Machine Specific Instantaneous Current Wave Form on Resistance Spot Welding Process

The influence of the machine specific instantaneous current wave forms on weld nugget dimensions and weld strength is investigated over six spot welding machines. It is observed that the nature of the real-time current wave forms corresponding to a common rms value can vary in different ac spot welding machines. The variations exist in the values of peak current and in the current-on and -off times in every ac cycle. It is observed that real-time current wave form involving higher peak current leads to slightly larger weld nugget diameter compared to wave form with smaller peak current even if the overall rms value remains similar. The real-time current wave form from a medium frequency dc confirms to a fast rise to the set weld current and remains steady for the complete weld time. A detailed experimental study has depicted that the real-time ac wave forms especially with high peak values and sharp rise characteristics offer a relatively smaller permissible range of weld currents compared to the wave forms with relatively flatter characteristics. The steady instantaneous current wave form confirming to the medium frequency dc machine has facilitated a larger permissible range of weld current. A numerical analysis of the spot welding process based on finite element process is carried out using both the instantaneous current wave forms and the corresponding rms values of weld current. The predicted weld dimensions using instantaneous current wave forms have showed slightly better agreement with the corresponding measured weld dimensions.