The optimisation of welding parameters for electrical resistance spot-welded twip steels using a taguchi method

Abstract

The aim of this work is to optimize the welding parameters of electrical resistance spot welded TWIP steel sheets using a Taguchi method. The welding parameters, such as weld current, welding time and electrode force, were determined according to the Taguchi orthogonal array L9 using a randomized approach. The optimum welding parameters for the peak tensile shear load of the joints were predicted, and the individual importance of each parameter on the tensile shear load of the resistance spot weld was evaluated by examining the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum weld current, welding time and electrode force were found to be 12 kA, 300 ms and 3000 N, respectively. The ANOVA results indicated that the weld current has the highest statistical effect with 78.73% on the tensile shear load, followed by the welding time and electrode force. The tensile shear load of the resistance spot welding joints increased with increasing weld current and electrode force. But, higher welding time led to relatively lower tensile shear load. In addition, the fracture surface characterization of the selected joints was conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. In this examination, it has been found that the joints having higher weld strength exhibited a relatively more ductile fracture characteristic.