New technology for measuring resistance of electrical contact and estimating welding quality

Abstract

Incomplete penetration is a common defect in the welding gap of large size (welding area is over 100 mm2) electrical contact, which leads to an instability of welding quality. Nevertheless, there was limited research dealing with non-destructive quality inspection of electrical contact. In this research, the resistance of CJ400 electrical contact was measured with the device medium frequency inverter resistance spot welding (MFI-RSW) machine. Multipulse measuring method was designed and proved efficient to reach a higher accuracy by restraining the influence of the contact resistance between electrodes and electrical contact. Moreover, the error of resistance caused by temperature rising in the measuring process is also eliminated effectively. Therefore, more accurate resistance of electrical contact could be extracted compared to the method of single pulse measuring. Then, the relationship between resistance and welding quality was studied and a new quality inspection method was proposed.