UNIT 1

RESISTANCE WELDING PROCESSES

Resistance Welding is a welding process, in which work pieces are welded due to a
combination of a pressure applied to them and a localized heat generated by a high electric current
flowing through the contact area of the weld.
Resistance Welding Processes and Equipments - Resistance welding is a group of
welding processes wherein coalescence is produced by the heat obtained from resistance of the
work to the flow of electric current in a circuit of which the work is a part and by the applications of
pressure. No filler metal is needed.

Heat produced by the current is sufficient for local melting of the work piece at the contact point

and joins the pieces. Time of the process and values of the pressure and flowing current, required
for formation of reliable joint, are determined by dimensions of the electrodes and the work piece
metal type.

AC electric current (up to 100 000 A) is supplied through copper electrodes connected to the
secondary coil of a welding transformer.

The following metals may be welded by Resistance Welding:

o Low carbon steels - the widest application of Resistance

Welding Aluminum alloys
o Medium carbon steels, high carbon steels and Alloy steels (may be welded, but the
weld is brittle)

Advantages of Resistance Welding -

(i) Fast rate of production.
(ii) No filler rod is needed.
(iii) Semi automatic equipments.
(iv) Less skilled workers can do the job.
(v) Both similar and dissimilar metals can be welded.
(vi) High reliability and reproducibility are obtained.
(vii) More general elimination of warping or distortion of parts.

Disadvantages of Resistance Welding -

(i) The initial cost of equipment is high.
(ii) Skilled persons are needed for the maintenance of equipment and its controls.
(iii) In some materials, special surface preparation is required.
(iv) Bigger job thicknesses cannot be welded.

Applications of Resistance Welding

Resistance welding is used for
(i) Joining sheets, bars, rods and tubes.
(ii) Making tubes and metal furniture.
(iii) Welding aircraft and automobile parts.
(iv) Making cutting tools.
(v) Making fuel tanks of cars, tractors etc.
(vi) Making wire fabric, grids, grills, mash weld, containers etc.

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The most popular methods of Resistance Welding are:
1. Spot Welding(RSW)
2. Projection welding(PW)
3. Seam Welding (RSEW)
4. Flash Welding (FW)
5. Resistance Butt Welding (UW)
6. Percussion welding and High frequency resistance welding processes

Spot Welding (RSW)

Spot welding came into use in the period 1900-1905. It is now the most widely used of
resistance welding processes. Spot welding is employed for joining sheet to sheet, sheets to rolled
sections or extrusions, wire to wire, etc. Spot welding is used for joining relatively light gauge parts
(up to about 3 mm thick) superimposed on one another (as a lap joint).

Definition
Spot welding is a resistance welding process in which overlapping sheets are joined by local
fusion at one or more spots by the heat generated, by resistance to the flow of electric current through
work pieces that are held together under force by two electrodes, one above and the other below the two
overlapping sheets.

Resistance spot welding is a process in which faying surfaces are joined in one or more
spots by resistance to the flow of electric current through workpieces that are held together under
force by electrodes. The contacting surfaces in the region of current concentration are heated by a
short-time pulse of low-voltage, high-amperage current to form a fused nugget of weld metal. When
the flow of current ceases, the electrode force is maintained while the weld metal rapidly cools and
solidifies. The electrodes are retracted after each weld, which usually is completed in a fraction
of asecond.

The size and shape of the individually formed welds are limited primarily by the size and
contour of the electrode faces. The weld nugget forms at the faying surfaces, as shown in Figure 1,

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but does not extend completely to the outer surfaces. In section, the nugget in a properly formed
spot weld is round or oval in shape; in plan view, it has the same shape as the electrode face (which
is usually round) and approximately the same size. Spacing between adjacent spot welds or rows of
spot welds must be enough to prevent shunting or to limit it to an acceptable amount.
Spot Weldable Metals -
Low carbon steel (mild steel).
(ii) Hardenable steels, which, after getting spot welded are treated in an annealing furnace.
(iii) High speed steel bits are spot welded to tool shanks for use in lathes, shapers, etc. The tool,
after A. Unequal thickness; Band C Multiple thickness getting welded, is annealed before final
hardening.
(iv) Stainless steels: Ferritic stainless steels behave very much as mild steel, however, the pressure
should be kept a little longer after welding. Martensitic (cutlery and similar qualities) stainless steel
can be treated ashardenable steel as it has pronounced air hardening qualities.

Non-ferrous Metals
(i) Aluminium
(ii) Aluminium Magnesium Alloys
(iii) Aluminium Manganese Alloys
(i), (ii) and (iii) may be spot welded satisfactorily. Oxide film on them is removed
and a high capacity machine is used as aluminium is a good conductor.
(iv) Copper. For welding copper upto 1.5 mm thick, hard faced or pure tungsten (welding)
electrodes are necessary.
(v) Nickel, Nickel alloys and Monel Metal require machine capacity and settings rather similar to those
employed for spot welding stainless steels.

5. Special alloy electrodes

They are made up of copper-zirconium and copper-cadmium zirconium. They find applications
similar to alloy (1) but where resistance to softening of the electrode face is a must.

RESISTANCE-SEAM WELDING (RSEW)

Seam Welding is a Resistance Welding (RW) process of continuous joining of overlapping sheets
by passing them between two rotating electrode wheels. Heat generated by the electric current
flowing through the contact area and pressure provided by the wheels are sufficient to produce a
leak-tight weld.

Resistance seam welding (RSEW) is a resistance welding process which produces coalescence
at the faying surfaces the heat obtained from resistance to electric current through the work parts held
together under pressure by electrodes.
The resulting weld is a series of overlapping resistance spot welds made progressively along a joint
rotating the electrodes. When the spots are not overlapped enough to produce gaslight welds it is a
variation known as roll resistance spot welding. This process differs from spot welding since the
electrodes are wheels. Both the upper and lower electrode wheels are powered. Pressure is applied
in the same manner as a press type welder. The wheels can be either in line with the throat of the
machine or transverse. If they are in line it is normally called a longitudinal seam welding machine.
Welding current is transferred through the bearing of the roller electrode wheels. Water cooling is
not provided internally and therefore the weld area is flooded with cooling water to keep the
electrode wheels cool.

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 In seam welding a rather complex control system is required. This involves the travel speed
as well as the sequence of current flow to provide for overlapping welds. The welding speed, the
spots per inch, and the timing schedule are dependent on each other. Welding schedules provide the
pressure, the current, the speed, and the size of the electrode wheels.
This process is quite common for making flange welds, for making watertight joints for
tanks, etc. Another variation is the so-called mash seam welding where the lap is fairly narrow and
the electrode wheel is at least twice as wide as used for standard seam welding. The pressure is
increased to approximately 300 times normal pressure. The final weld mash seam thickness is only
25% greater than the original single sheet.
Seam Welding is high speed and clean process, which is used when continuous tight weld is
required (fuel tanks, drums, domestic radiators).

Advantages
o Gas tight as well as liquid tight joints can be made.
o The Overlap is less than spot or projection welding.
o The production of single seam weld and parallel seams can be got simultaneously.

Disadvantages
o The welding process is restricted to a straight line or uniformly curved line.
o The metals sheets having thickness more than 3mm can cause problems while welding.
o The design of the electrodes may be needed to change to weld metal sheets having
obstructions.

Applications of RSEW
o Girth weld is possible in rectangular or square or even in circular shapes.

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 o Most of the metals can be welded (Except copper and some high percentage copper alloys)
o Butt welding can be done.
PROJECTION WELDING

In the projection welding, as per the name, different projections are formed for effective
welding. Projection Welding is one of the types of resistance welding and its working principle is
quite the same as the resistance welding. The only difference here is that projection or embossed
joints are used for the welding purpose.

Working Principle
As per the definition, different projections are formed in this welding technique. Here, the
metal pieces that are to be joined are kept in between the two electrodes. A larger pressure force is
applied to the electrodes. As current is passed through the system, the heat formation takes place
due to the internal resistance of the metal workpieces. One point that you must note down here, is
that the heat generation takes place due to the internal resistance of the metal workpieces rather than
an electric arc. Those projections concentrate the heat. As the pressure applied to the electrodes
increases, this projection collapses and the formation of the fused weld nugget takes place. Thus, a
quality weld is formed.

The exact working of the projection welding can be understood by referring the below image.

You can see in the above image that the projection means the embossed joints are formed on one of
the base metals and then, these base metals are kept in between the two electrodes and force is
applied perpendicular to the electrodes.
But as the applied force increases those sharp projections collapses and the formation of the weld
takes place at the weld surface. The above image illustrates the formation of the weld nuggets as
well as the collapsing of the sharp projections.

Advantages
As the above stated, this welding requires a very small supply of current and thus, it saves
the electricity usage. So, less electricity requirement and a longer electrode life are the two
most prominent benefits of this welding process.
While doing spot welding there is a limitation on the thickness of the metal that has to be
welded. But in this welding, almost metals of all thickness are welded.
It can be used effectively for welding of the joints which are on the complicate locations.

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 The heat balance is an important part of any welding process and this welding gives a good
heat balance while welding.
Disadvantages
This welding process is not applicable for some types of the coppers and brasses.
Projection formation is a quite complicated process and it takes time to form the projections.
It is very difficult to form the spherical projection and a skilled person is required to form
such projections. While making those projections, a height of the projection has to be
maintained properly.
This process is not applicable to all types of workpieces. The composition of the metal
workpieces has to be considered while this process and it has some limitations.

Application
As Projection welding is mostly used for the mass production. It has many applications such as:
Automobile industry uses projection welding to a very large extent.
This welding process is also used for the fan covers and hollow metal doors.
It is also used for producing the compressor parts and for the semi-conductors.
Have you heard about the diamond segment welding? In the diamond segment welding,
projection welding finds its applications.

BUTT WELDING

Welding of two pieces of metal together with a butt weld can be carried out by different
resistance welding processes. The butt weld consists of joining of two pieces of metal together
either on face or on edge.
It is of two types namely upset butt welding and flash butt welding.

Flash Welding (FW)

Flash Welding is a Resistance Welding (RW) process, in which ends of rods (tubes, sheets) are
heated and fused by an arc struck between them and then forged (brought into a contact under a
pressure) producing a weld.

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Construction and working of Flash Butt Welding:

The welded parts are held in electrode clamps, one of which is stationary and the second is
movable. Flash Welding method permits fast (about 1 min.) joining of large and complex parts.
Welded part are often annealed for improvement of toughness of the weld. Steels, Aluminum alloys,
Copper alloys, Magnesium alloys, Copper alloys and Nickel alloys may be welded by Flash Welding.
It is another type of resistance welding which is used to weld tubes and rods in steel industries.
In this process, two work pieces which are to be welded will be clamped in the electrode holders and a
high pulsed current in the range of 100000 ampere is supplied to the work piece material. In this two
electrode holders are used in which one is fixed and other is movable. Initially the current is supplied
and movable clamp is forced against the fixed clamp due to contact of these two work pieces at high
current, flash will be produced. When the interface surface comes into plastic form, the current is
stopped and axial pressure is increased to make joint. In this process weld is formed due to plastic
deformation.

Application:
1. Resistance welding is widely used in automotive industries.
2. Projection welding is widely used in production of nut and bolt.
3. Seam welding is used to produce leak prove joint required in small tanks, boilers etc.
4. Flash welding is used to welding pipes and tubes.

Advantages:
1. It can weld thin (0.1 mm) as well as thick (20mm) metals.
2. High welding speed.
3. Easily automated.
4. Both similar and dissimilar metals can be weld.
5. The process is simple and fully automated so does not required high skilled labor.
6. High production rate.
7. It is environment friendly process.
8. It does not require any filler metal, flux and shielding gases.

Disadvantages:
1. High equipment cost.
2. The thickness of work piece is limited due to current requirement.
3. It is less efficient for high conductive materials.
4. High electric power required.
5. Weld joints have low tensile and fatigue strength.