Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 3(11): 1494-1499, 2007

© 2007, INSInet Publication

Study Of Spot Welding Of Austenitic Stainless Steel Type 304

1
J.B. Shamsul and 2M.M. Hisyam

1
School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis
2
Kompleks Pusat Pengajian 2, Taman Muhibbah, Jejawi, 02600 Arau, Perlis.

Abstract: In this study, austenitic stainless steel type 304 were welded by resistance spot welding. The
relationship of nugget diameter and welding current was investigated. Hardness distribution along welding
zone was also investigated. The results indicated that increasing welding current gave large nugget
diameter. The welding current did not much affected the hardness distribution.

Keywords:

INTRODUCTION welding nugget gave the highest hardness. The argon

gas used during the welding process was seen to have
Resistance spot welding is usually used in the no influence on the hardness values. This paper
fabrication of sheet metal assembly. It can be used to presents the effect of welding current on the physical
weld materials such as low carbon steel, nickel, properties of austenitic stainless steel type 304.
aluminum, titanium, copper alloy, stainless steel and
high-strength low alloy steel. Resistance Spot welding M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS
process is most applicable in the industrial fields of
manufacture and maintenance (car industry, aerospace Spot W eld Test Samples: The samples for this
and nuclear sectors, electronic and electric industries). experimental procedure were produced based on
Murat et al., [1 ] have studied on the resistance spot dimension that was stated by American National
weldability of galvanized interstitial free steel sheets Standards Institute (ANSI) and American W elding
with austenitic stainless steel sheets. In microhardness Society (AW S). This standard dimension for each plate
measurements, the maximum hardness values were in to be spot welded is 76mm length and 19mm width,
the middle of the weld nugget. Emin Bayraktar et al. [2 ] while the overlap for the lap joint is 19mm (Figure 1).
have contributed their research on the selection of A numbers of stainless steel 304 plates with the
optimal welding conditions and developed new grade thickness of 3mm were cut into the standard
steels for automotive applications. The study based on dimension, placed as lap joint and then spot welded,
impact tensile testing to spot welded sheets. The effect producing 27 pieces welded samples. Before starting
of nucleus size on mechanical properties in electrical the welding process, it is important to make sure that
resistance spot welding of chromide micro alloyed steel the setting on the spot welding machine is as required.
sheets was investigated by Aslanlar [3 ]. Bouyousfi The spot welding machine has two important dials
et al.,[4 ] have studied the effect of process parameters which is one for the welding current and another is for
(arc intensity, welding duration and applied load) on the welding duration. Another important step before
the mechanical characteristics of the weld joint of starting the welding process is to turn on the water
austenitic stainless steel 304L. The results showed that supply for the electrodes. This is for cooling the
the applied load seems to be the control factor of the electrodes during the welding process. Two stainless
mechanical characteristics of weld joint compared to steel plates were placed as a lap joint in between two
the welding duration and the current intensity. water cooled electrodes. These plates were then
Nizamettin K. [5 ] has focused his study on the influence clamped by the electrode where on the same time;
of welding parameters on the joint strength of current is flowing through the joint for a few seconds
resistance spot-welded titanium sheets. The results depends on the machine’s setting. It is important to
indicated that increasing current time and electrode make sure that the electrodes clamp the joint at the
force increased the tensile shear strength and the joint centre of the overlap. The welding current that was
obtained under the argon atmosphere gave better used varies from 2.5kA, 3.75kA, 5kA and 6.25kA, as
strength. Hardness measurement results showed that the cycle remains constant which is four cycle.

Corresponding Author: J.B. Shamsul, School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis.
E-mail address : [email protected]
1494
 J. Appl. Sci. Res., 3(11): 1494-1499, 2007

Fig.1: ANSI/AW S standard dimension for spot weld test.

Sample 1

(a) (b)
Fig. 1: Graphs of the microhardness distribution across weld nuggets.

Sample 2

(c) (d)

Sample 3

(e) (f)

Fig. 2: Graphs of the microhardness distribution across weld nuggets.

1495
 J. Appl. Sci. Res., 3(11): 1494-1499, 2007

Sample 4

(g) (h)
Fig. 3a: Graphs of the microhardness distribution across weld nuggets.

Fig. 3b: Hardness distribution for sample 2 and 3; showing pores.

After the current was cut off, the electrodes were let to speed cutter such as Metacut abrasive cutting
remains clamping on the joint. This is to forge molten machine, will effect and damage the cross section
metal of the weld as it cooled. The materials studied surface of the weld. The heat generated by the
are austenitic stainless steel type 304. The specimens normal cutter will affect the weld surface as
were placed on each other and the welding current was they may experience heat treatment. These cross
changed from 2.50, 3.75, 5.00 and 6.25 kA during sectioned samples were then cut into small pieces
welding process. with length about 10mm by using Metacut
abrasive cutting machine. The reason for this step
M icrohardness Test Samples: The weld joint is to make the samples easier to be cold mounted.
was in the middle of the spot weld to obtain the A few small pieces of PVC pipe have been cut as
cross section of the weld. Precision diamond cutter the moulds for cold counting. Then, a resin
machine was used for this purpose. The cutting mixture with the composition of 98% resin and
processes of these samples have taken a very long 2% catalyzer has been made. The PVC moulds
period as they have high strength property and were then placed on the flat tile and sealed with
the slow cutting speed of the precision diamond clay to avoid the resin mixture from leaking. The
cutter machine. Cutting using this machine is a must cold mounted samples were ground and polished.
as to obtain the unaffected weld surface of the Grinding was carried out using abrasive sand
spot welds. Cutting with using a normal high papers that have grades such as 240, 360, 400,

1496
 J. Appl. Sci. Res., 3(11): 1494-1499, 2007

(a) (b)

c (b)
Fig. 4: Microstructure of sample 3 (a) and (b) with magnification of 50X, and (c) with magnification of 200X
and (d) with magnification of 400X.

600, and 800 and 1200, starting with the roughest till Table 1: N ugget diam eters produced by each applied w elding
current.
finest grade. Then these samples were polished with
Sam ples W elding Current (kA) N ugget D iam eter (m m )
diamond solution followed by alumina. Mitutoyo Sam ple 1 2.50 3
Vickers Microhardness, Model HM-114 was used to Sam ple 2 3.75 3
measure hardness. Sam ple 3 5.00 5
Sam ple 4 6.25 6

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Microhardness testing was carried out on the cross-
The diameter of each nugget were measured section samples across the horizontal and vertical of
and shown in Table 1. From this table, it is the nuggets. Three hardness readings were taken for
proven that the weld nugget increases with the each area spotted along the nugget diameter. The
increasing of welding current. W eld nugget for sample averages of these reading were then calculated for
4 with welding current of 6.25kA has the widest precision. Graphs of hardness versus range were then
diameter of all samples. As noted in [5 ] , the increasing made using the values obtained (Figure 2). The graphs
nugget diameter has a limit. The continuing increased were studied to show the effect of hardness distribution
welding currents that surpass this limit will cause the along the weld nuggets due to the varied welding
nugget diameter to become shorter or decreased as the current. Generally, from the graphs, the weld nugget
result of the excessive metal melting and splashing in has higher values of hardness compared to the heat
the interlayer. As shown in the Table 1, the decreasing affected zone and base metal. W hen the graphs were
of nugget diameter cannot be observed as the diameter evaluated it was found that the hardness distribution
continues to increase till the final welding current across molten metal or weld nugget for all sample
used. This means that the welding current should were almost the same. This shows that by varying the
be increased beyond 6.25kA to show the decreasing of welding current, the hardness distribution across the
nugget diameter for the constant welding duration. weld nugget was not much effected.

1497
 J. Appl. Sci. Res., 3(11): 1494-1499, 2007

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Fig. 5: Microstructure of sample 3 (a) and (b) with magnification of 50X, and (c) with magnification of 200X
and (d) with magnification of 400X.

In the study carried out by Murat et al.,[1 ]. the enough to cause the deformation in the weld nugget
hardness distributions were measured starting from the that produces the maximum hardness.
centre of the weld, while in this study the measuring
was started from left to the right part and below to the Conclusion: Austenitic stainless steel AISI-304 is an
upper part of the weld nugget of each sample. This is extremely important commercial alloy due to its
due to the defect in the form of pores that were existed excellent corrosion resistance, high strength, good
at the centre of weld nuggets for sample 2 and 3 ductility and toughness. In this study, two plates of
(Figure 4 and Figure 5). Thus, for these two samples, these steel were placed as a lap joint and spot welded
the hardness measurement at the centre of weld using varied welding current. The results show that
nuggets cannot be obtained (Figure 3a,b). Compared to increasing welding current increased the nugget size.
the hardness values that were obtained by Murat et The nugget size does not influence the hardness
al[1 ], the hardness values across nugget diameter of the distribution. In addition, increasing welding current
samples were much smaller. This is because of the does not increase the hardness distribution
great differences in the parameters used such as the
electrode force and sample thickness. Nizamettin REFERENCES
Kahraman [5 ] reported the hardness measurement
increased to some extent when the electrode force was 1. Murat, V., A. Ahmet, 2004. On the resistance spot
increased and all the other parameters were kept weldability of galvanized interstitial free steel
constant. The hardness of the weld nugget depends on sheets with austenitic stainless steel sheets, Journal
of Materials Processing Technology, 153-154: 1-6.
the amount of deformation during the holding time and
2. Emin, B., K. Dominique, G. Marc, 2004.
resting time of welding process where the pressure was
Application of impact tensile testing to spot
applied continuously. It seems that the electrode force
welded sheets, Journal of Materials Processing
that was applied in this study which is 150kgf was
Technology, 153-154: 80-86.

1498
 J. Appl. Sci. Res., 3(11): 1494-1499, 2007

3. Aslanlar, S., 2006, The effect of nucleus size on 5. Nizamettin, K., 2007. The influence of welding
mechanical properties in electrical resitance spot parameters on the joint strength of resistance spot-
welding of sheets used in automotive industry, welded titanium sheets, Materials and
Materials and Design, 27: 125-131. Design, 28: 420-427.
4. Bouyousfi, B., T. Sahraoui, S. Guessasma, K.
Tahar Chaouch, 2007. Effect of process parameters
on the physical characteristics of spot weld joints,
Materials and Design, 28: 414-419.

1499