Recent Advances and Improvements in the Simulation of Resistance Welding Processes

Abstract

Along with introduction of the new welding software SORPAS® since 1999, numerical simulation of resistance welding has gained more and more industrial applications. It has now been applied by many leading manufacturing companies for evaluating the weldability of metal combinations and testing the welding process parameters. In the past few years, new developments have been focused on optimisation of process parameters. In this paper two new functions are presented for automated optimisation of welding current in spot welding. One function is for automated simulations in a specified range of welding current from a low limit to a high limit with a user-defined increment. The results of simulation show a curve of the evolution of the weld nugget diameter as a function of the welding current with indication of possible expulsions. The other function is for fully automated optimisation seeking for the optimised welding current for achieving an objective size of weld nugget. Further developments and improvements have also been made for simulations of projection welding and micro resistance welding especially regarding to dynamic deformation of materials and evolution of the contact interfaces. Examples of simulations are presented to demonstrate the applications of the software.