Abstract
Magnesium alloys have a significant benefit over the steel and aluminum alloys in manufacturing of components for many automotive and structural applications because of their extreme lightweight, low density, and high strength to weight ratio. However, one of the glaring impediments to the success of steels, aluminum, and magnesium-based multi-material integration for automotive industries is the ability to join these materials together without any cracking and corrosive damages during a performance. The present work aims to demonstrate a cost-effective, novel, and versatile joining technique, named Upset Protrusion Joining (UPJ), to mechanically and rapidly (1–2 s) join die-cast AM60 alloy to aluminum alloy sheet and evaluate its UPJ characteristics. Cast Mg plate has a cylindrical protrusion (11 mm diameter and 14 mm height) emanated perpendicular to its flat surface, and an aluminum sheet has a hole that accommodates the protrusion. Mg and Al alloy components are then clamped together, electrically heated, and compressed perpendicular to the protrusion axis. During compression, the protrusion expanded circumferentially to fill the hole as well as the region above the hole, and entrapped the Al sheet between the deformed (in a mushroom shape) head and the Mg plate. The effect of different UPJ process parameters such as applied current, current duration, compression loading rate, and compression distance is studied. The process demonstrated repeatability at given process conditions, and optimum process parameters were identified that produce visibly good joints (defect-free) and sufficient joint strengths when tested in the lap-shear mode under uniaxial tension. AM60 alloy showed a great promise as a candidate alloy to suit the UPJ method to adapt to automotive and other industrial manufacturing units to join with dissimilar wrought Al alloy sheets.
Highlights
Environmental pollution via greenhouse gas emissions is the primary concern for the transportation industry, such as automobile manufacturers
The main objective of the present work is to test the versatile Upset Protrusion Joining (UPJ) process, study the effect of various process variables, and optimize the parameters to assess the capability of joining die-cast AM60 magnesium alloy with an aluminum sheet
The work presented in this paper is to evaluate the characteristics of die-cast AM60 alloy plate to join with dissimilar alloy using the UPJ process
Summary
Environmental pollution via greenhouse gas emissions is the primary concern for the transportation industry, such as automobile manufacturers. Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys are being developed for use as structural components in the automobile and aerospace industries due to their lightweight, high elastic modulus, strength to weight ratio, castability, damping capacity, electromagnetic interference shielding, heat dissipation capability, ability to withstand shock loads, and recyclability [1,2]. A significant reduction in the weight of the vehicles could be achieved only with the adaption of a multi-material solution to the structural chassis and body components. While Mg and Al alloys have demonstrated the ability to provide substantial weight reductions compared to steel [5], one of the significant obstacles to the success of such an integration is joining these materials together without any corrosive damages during the performance. It is imperative to develop techniques that work well with the cast alloys due to the high cost and formability issues with wrought magnesium alloys
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