Capacitor Discharge Spot Welding of Aluminum, Part 2: Electrode Life Assessments

Abstract

A major challenge for high-volume resistance spot welding of aluminum sheet is durability of the electrodes themselves. In production today, electrodes have total anticipated lives (including dressing) on the order of 1000 welds. This is largely related to the use of medium-frequency direct current (MFDC) power. The single-polarity orientation of MFDC welding results in excessive heating of one electrode (anode) and accelerated wear rates. Recently, technology employing capacitor discharge (CD) welding in conjunction with polarity switching has been developed. This work is the first effort in examining the response of resistance spot welding on aluminum sheet using this power source. Part 1 of this research (Ref. 1) described basic process robustness in spot welding with CD power systems. Part 2 addresses electrode life response. Duplicate electrode life tests were completed for 2000 welds without failure. These results were related to the polarity switching and short time that produced balanced and minimized wear. Additional testing was done without the use of electrode-cooling water. A limited test (500 welds) largely paralleled the ones done with cooling, suggesting that long-term spot welding with polarity-switching CD power and no water was possible.