Spot welding with high power steels:

The main issues continually under review and growth about spot welding are the materials, equipment and quality control. New high power and ultra high power steels, coated steels and aluminium alloys are increasingly being developed and used particularly in the automotive industry. These new materials have caused important weld ability troubles leading producers to further develop their resistance welding equipment.

The growth of new technologies and controls has seen important changes to the equipment particularly in the automotive aftermarket with the introduction of inverter power sources using ‘transformer guns’. This type of equipment permits for repeatable weld performance with much longer wires compared with the normal type welding machine.

The new technology is currently referred to as ‘Smart Machines’ which use computer manage to decrease or eliminate periodic destructive tests. These ‘Smart Machines’ can watch the weld parameters against pre stored values, material characteristics and the weld nugget position. The equipment offers an adaptive in process alteration to make sure acceptable weld quality despite differences in material thickness, fit up and current shunting. Whilst the weld can’t be guaranteed 100% each time this welding equipment gives consistency not seen in older type machines.