Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Recent Trends and Challenges in Welding of Automotive Steels


Affiliations
1 Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of T echnology , Madras, Chennai, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


The development of modern automotive vehicles with improved environmental, safety and vehicle performance has driven the development of new steel grades that are lighter , safer , greener and more cost effective. As a result, conventional low carbon steels and high strength steels are increasingly replaced with adv anced high strength steels (AHSS) due to their high strength and good uniform elongation. This unique combination in mechanical properties is achieved by carefully designing the microstructure by adding special alloying elements and controlled heat treatments. In automotive manufacturing processes, fusion welding is an important process employed for the joining of steel parts and components. However , the thermal cycle of a welding process destroys the carefully designed microstructure of AHSS. In order to use these materials effectively , it is necessary to have a sound understanding of the influence of weld thermal cycles and alloying additions on the evolution of microstructure in the fusion and heat affected zones. In this paper , the current understanding and recent developments in the welding of current generation advanced high strength steels for automotive applications are discussed. The paper concludes with the assessments and possible solutions to improve the weldability of advanced high strength steels for automotive applications.

Keywords

Welding, Automotive Steel, Advanced High Strength Steel, AHHS, Weldability .
User
Subscription Login to verify subscription
Notifications
Font Size

  • The International Council on Clean Transportation (2019); Global Passenger Vehicle Standards, Vol. June. Web: www.theicct.org/info-tools/global-passenger-vehicles-standards
  • Advanced High Strength Steels Application Guidelines (2017); Version 6.0, April 2017 , pp.1-7 .
  • Porter DA, Easterling KE and Sherif MY (2008); Phase Transformations in Metals and Alloys; 3rd edition, CRC press.
  • McGannon HE (1971); The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel, 9th edition, United States Steel.
  • Easterling KE (1992); Introduction to the Physical Metallurgy of Welding, 2nd Ed., Butterworth Heinemann.
  • Honeycombe R and Bhadeshia HKDH (1995); Steels– Microstructure and properties, 2nd edition, Edward Arnold.
  • Hulka K (2003); Modern multi-phase steels for the automotive industry , Materials Science, T esting and Informatics, Materials Science Forum, 414-415, pp.101-110.
  • Zackay VF , Parker ER, Fahr D and Busch R (1967); Enhancement of ductility in high-strength steels, ASM T rans. Quart., 60, pp.252-259.
  • T ang Z- Y , Ding H, Du L -X, Ding H and Zhang X (2007); Effect of thermo mechanical processing on microstructures of TRIP steel, Journal of Iron and Steel Research International, 14(2), pp.56-60.
  • Wolk Van Der P (2001); Modelling CCT diagrams of engineering steels using neural networks, PhD Thesis, TU Delft. Web: http://repository .tudelft.nl/
  • Chatterjee S, Murugananth M and Bhadeshia HKDH (2007); δ TRIP steel, Materials Science and T echnology , 23(7), pp.819-827 .
  • Mahieu J, Claessens S and Cooman De B (2001); Galvanizability of high-strength steels for automotive applications, Met. T rans. A, 32, pp.2905-2908.
  • Garcia-mateo C, Caballero FG and Bhadesia HKDH (2003); Acceleration of low- temperature bainite, ISIJ International, 43, pp.1821–1825.
  • Uijl Den NJ and Smith S (2006); Resistance spot welding of advanced high strength steels for the automoti ve i ndustry, Proceedi ngs of the 4th International Seminar on Advances in Resistance Welding, Wels, Austria.
  • Amirthalingam M, Hermans MJM and Richardson IM (2009); Microstructural development during welding of silicon- and aluminum-based transformation-induced plasticity steels-inclusion and elemental partitioning analysis, Metallurgical and Materials T ransactions APhysical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 40A(4), pp.901-909.
  • Amirthalingam M, Der van EM, Kawakernaak C, Hermans MJM and Richardson IM (2015); Elemental segregation during resistance spot welding of boron containing advanced high strength steels, Welding in the world, 59 (5), pp.743-755.
  • Der van EM, Amirthalingam M, Winter J, Hanlon DN, Hermans MJM, Rijnders M and Richardson IM (2016); Improved resistance spot weldability of 3rd generation ultra high strength automotive steels, Mathematical Modelling of Weld Phenomena, Vol.11, pp.175-194.ISBN 978-3-85125-490-7 .
  • Agarwal G, Gao H, Amirthalingam M and Hermans MJM (2018); Study of solidification susceptibility during laser welding in an advanced high strength automotive steel, Metals, 8 (9).
  • Agarwal G, Kumar A, Amirthalingam M, Moon SC, Dippenaar RJ, Richardson IM and Hermans MJM (2018); Study of sol idi fication cracking in a transformation induced plasticity-aided steel, Mat. Mat.T rans. A, 49(4), pp.1015-1020.
  • Gao H, Agarwal G, Amirthalingam M, Hermans MJM and Richardson IM (2018); Investigation on hot cracking during laser welding by means of experimental and numerical methods, Welding in the World, 62, pp.71-78.
  • Agarwal G, Gao H, Amirthalingam M and Hermans MJM (2018); In-situ strain investigation during laser welding using digital image correlation and finite-element-based numerical simulation, Science and T echnology of Welding and Joining, 23(2), pp.134-139.
  • Gao H, Agarwal G, Amirthalingam M and Hermans MJM (2018); Hot cracking investigation during laser welding of high-strength steels with multi-scale modelling approach, Science and T echnology of Welding and Joining, 23(4), pp.287-294.
  • Agarwal G, Amirthalingam M, Moon SC, Dippenaar RJ, Richardson IM and Hermans MJM (2018); Experimental evidence of liquid feeding during solidification of a steel, Scripta Materialia, 146, pp.105-109.

Abstract Views: 400

PDF Views: 7




  • Recent Trends and Challenges in Welding of Automotive Steels

Abstract Views: 400  |  PDF Views: 7

Authors

Murugaiyan Amirthalingam
Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of T echnology , Madras, Chennai, India

Abstract


The development of modern automotive vehicles with improved environmental, safety and vehicle performance has driven the development of new steel grades that are lighter , safer , greener and more cost effective. As a result, conventional low carbon steels and high strength steels are increasingly replaced with adv anced high strength steels (AHSS) due to their high strength and good uniform elongation. This unique combination in mechanical properties is achieved by carefully designing the microstructure by adding special alloying elements and controlled heat treatments. In automotive manufacturing processes, fusion welding is an important process employed for the joining of steel parts and components. However , the thermal cycle of a welding process destroys the carefully designed microstructure of AHSS. In order to use these materials effectively , it is necessary to have a sound understanding of the influence of weld thermal cycles and alloying additions on the evolution of microstructure in the fusion and heat affected zones. In this paper , the current understanding and recent developments in the welding of current generation advanced high strength steels for automotive applications are discussed. The paper concludes with the assessments and possible solutions to improve the weldability of advanced high strength steels for automotive applications.

Keywords


Welding, Automotive Steel, Advanced High Strength Steel, AHHS, Weldability .

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.22486/iwj.v53i2.195582