Dissimilar metal joining of aluminium to zinc-coated steel by ultrasonic plus resistance spot welding – microstructure and mechanical properties

Abstract

Vehicle body structures are increasingly utilising multi-materials designs with advanced high strength steels (AHSS) and aluminium alloys. A robust process for joining aluminium alloys to AHSS based on resistance spot welding (RSW) is essential to widespread application of such bi-metallic structures in fuel-efficient vehicles. In this study, ultrasonic plus RSW was applied to join AA6022 to Zn-coated dual-phase steel DP980. During solid-state ultrasonic spot welding, an interface structure comprising multilayer, Al–Zn and Zn–Fe intermetallics formed due to alloying of aluminium with steel coating. Such structure was subsequently melted into the aluminium nugget, and new Al–Fe intermetallics formed during RSW. Ultrasonic plus resistance spot-welded joints had superior fracture energy than direct resistance spot-welded joints.

Keywords:

• Dissimilar metal joining
• aluminium alloy
• zinc-coated steel
• mechanical properties
• intermetallics
• resistance spot welding
• automotive light-weighting

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr Tim Abke of HRA, Prof. Menachem Kimchi of Ohio State University, and Prof. Tarasankar DebRoy of Pennsylvania State University for valuable discussion.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Carolin Fink http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8420-3187

Wei Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4543-2563