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Joining of Advanced High Strength Steels for the Automotive Industry

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A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2019) | Viewed by 30496

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Pasquale Russo Spena

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Interests: manufacturing processes; welding and joining; metal science and processing, metallurgy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSSs) are increasingly used for the fabrication of more lightweight, mechanical and impact resistant components. Superior performance allows to improve passenger safety (i.e. crashworthiness), reduce fuel consumption and gas emissions. However, even though fusion (e.g. arc, laser, spot welding) and solid-state (e.g. friction welding, riveting, clinching, fastening) technologies offer a notable flexibility in designing tailored multi-material parts for speciﬁc purposes, joining of AHSSs usually needs a different approach than that used for traditional steels. In this regard, fusion weldments of AHSSs normally exhibit a much lower mechanical strength and toughness as compared to the base materials. Differently, solid-state joining suffers mainly from the difficulty to deform plastically high resistant steels to realize joints. In addition, crack formation, shrinkage porosity, residual stresses, corrosion phenomena are more critical in AHSSs. To limit or overcome these issues, different promising solutions have been proposed such as optimized chemical compositions, hybrid welding, automated welding controls, pre- and post-heat treatments, new patented joining technologies and so on. However, they are often unreliable enough to allow an effective integration on a broad scale and some issues still remain unsolved.

Investment in research and development of AHSSs joining has great potential to boost manufacturing competitiveness in the automotive industry. Therefore, this special issue aims at collecting the most recent developments in joining of these steels covering several aspects such as fusion welding, solid-state and mechanical joining, microstructure-property relationships of joints, welding and forming of tailor welded blanks, welding control and automation, joining modeling and FEM simulation, welding metallurgy, corrosion phenomena, protective coatings.

Dr. Pasquale Russo Spena
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

welding and joining of automotive steels
tailor welded blanks
similar and dissimilar joints
fusion, solid-state and mechanical joining
microstructure-property relationships
modeling and FEM simulation
welding control and automation
welding metallurgy
corrosion

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 3652 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Induction Weld Seam Characterization of Continuously Roll Formed TRIP690 Tubes

by Alexander Bardelcik and Bharathwaj Thirumalai Ananthapillai

Metals 2020, 10(4), 425; https://doi.org/10.3390/met10040425 - 25 Mar 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3971

Abstract

The weld seam characteristics of continuously roll formed and induction seam welded TRIP690 tubes were examined in this work. These tube are subsequently used in automotive hydroforming applications, where the weld seam characteristics are critical. The induction seam welds are created through a solid-state welding process and it was shown that by increasing the induction frequency by 26%, the weld seam width within the heat affected zone (HAZ) reduced due to a plateau in the hardness distribution which was a result of a delay in the transformation of martensite. 2D hardness distribution contours were also created to show that some of the weld conditions examined in this work resulted in a strong asymmetric hardness distribution throughout the weld, which may be undesirable from a performance perspective. An increase in the pressure roll force was also examined and revealed that a wider total weld seam width was produced likely due to an increase in temperature which resulted in more austenitization of the sheet edge prior to welding. The ring hoop tension test (RHTT) was applied to the tube sections created in this work. A Tensile and Notch style ring specimen were tested and revealed excellent performance for these welds due to high peak loads (~17.2 kN) for the Notch specimens (force deformation within weld) and lower peak loads (~15.2 kN) for the Tensile specimens for which fracture occurred in the base metal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Joining of Advanced High Strength Steels for the Automotive Industry)

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13 pages, 6362 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transient Softening at the Fusion Boundary of Resistance Spot Welds: A Phase Field Simulation and Experimental Investigations for Al–Si-coated 22MnB5

by Oleksii Sherepenko, Omid Kazemi, Paul Rosemann, Markus Wilke, Thorsten Halle and Sven Jüttner

Metals 2020, 10(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/met10010010 - 20 Dec 2019

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3780

Abstract

This work gives an insight into the transient softening at the fusion boundary of resistance spot welds on hot stamped steel. Metallographic investigations and hardness mapping were combined with finite phase–field modeling of phase evolution at the fusion boundary. Saturation of weld nugget growth in the welding process was observed. For industrially relevant, long welding times, the fusion boundary of a spot weld is therefore isothermally soaked between the peritectic and solidus temperatures. This leads to a carbon segregation to the liquid phase due to higher carbon solubility and possibly to δ-Fe formation at the fusion boundary. Both results in a local carbon depletion at the fusion boundary. This finding is in good agreement with carbon content measurements at the fusion boundary and the results of hardness measurements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Joining of Advanced High Strength Steels for the Automotive Industry)

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16 pages, 4489 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Physical and Theoretical Modeling of the Nitrogen Content of Duplex Stainless Steel Weld Metal: Shielding Gas Composition and Heat Input Effects

by Balázs Varbai and Kornél Májlinger

Metals 2019, 9(7), 762; https://doi.org/10.3390/met9070762 - 7 Jul 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4056

Abstract

Duplex stainless steels (DSSs) are gaining more and more attention in corrosion-resistant applications and also in the transport and automotive industry. The outstanding mechanical and corrosion properties of DSSs highly depends on the austenite-to-ferrite phase balance (A/F). This phase ratio can shift in a large scale during welding. Thus, the heat input and the shielding gas composition should be optimized. Nitrogen addition to argon shielding is frequently used in DSS welding, because it is a potent austenite former. The dissolved nitrogen content in the heat-affected zone and the weld metal (WM) predetermines the A/F. To determine the effect of heat input and nitrogen content in shielding gas, two different heat inputs and six different gas compositions were used in autogenous tungsten inert gas welding. An improved theoretical model was established in order to simulate the WM dissolved nitrogen content, which calculates it with less error than the initial models. The correlation between nitrogen content and arc voltage was also determined. This improved model delivers the basics for shielding gas selection and the subsequent weld design for optimal A/F for industrial applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Joining of Advanced High Strength Steels for the Automotive Industry)

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12 pages, 40056 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Porosity Characteristics and Effect on Tensile Shear Strength of High-Strength Galvanized Steel Sheets after the Gas Metal Arc Welding Process

by Seungmin Shin and Sehun Rhee

Metals 2018, 8(12), 1077; https://doi.org/10.3390/met8121077 - 18 Dec 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4690

Abstract

In this study, lap joint experiments were conducted using galvanized high-strength steel, SGAFH 590 FB 2.3 mmt, which was applied to automotive chassis components in the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process. Zinc residues were confirmed using a semi-quantitative energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis of the porosity in the weld. In addition, a tensile shear test was performed to evaluate the weldability. Furthermore, the effect of porosity defects, such as blowholes and pits generated in the weld, on the tensile shear strength was experimentally verified by comparing the porosity at the weld section of the tensile test specimen with that measured through radiographic testing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Joining of Advanced High Strength Steels for the Automotive Industry)

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Review

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28 pages, 4229 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review of Aluminum-To-Steel Welding Technologies for Car-Body Applications

by Alessio Gullino, Paolo Matteis and Fabio D’Aiuto

Metals 2019, 9(3), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/met9030315 - 11 Mar 2019

Cited by 123 | Viewed by 13357

Abstract

Hybrid car bodies fabricated by joining parts made with steel and aluminum alloys are becoming increasingly common. This provides an affordable mean to decrease the car weight by using lighter or more advanced materials only where they can achieve the maximum benefit. This development is driven mainly by recent regulations on carbon dioxide emissions, and hinges on the deployment of effective joining technologies. In most cases, such technologies were not previously used in the car sector, and must be adapted to its requirements. Several dissimilar welding technologies, based on either fusion welding or solid-state welding, are reviewed here, focusing on dissimilar joining among steels and wrought aluminum alloys. These technologies are either presently being introduced in the car industry, or are used in other sectors and could be applied in the car industry in the near future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Joining of Advanced High Strength Steels for the Automotive Industry)

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