Method of resistance spot welding aluminum alloy workpieces
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsDavid R. Sigler, Michael J. Karagoulis
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Abstract
A method of resistance spot welding aluminum alloy workpieces together is disclosed that involves periodically texturing and dressing of at least one of the two electrode weld faces. The texturing and dressing steps help preserve the ability of the welding electrode to deliver electrical current through the overlapping aluminum alloy workpieces being welding despite the presence of one or more oxide layers on the surfaces of the workpieces and, as such, are effective in prolonging the useful life of the electrode(s).
Claims19
A method of maintaining a welding electrode during its use in resistance spot welding aluminum alloy workpieces together, the method comprising:
- texturing a weld face of the welding electrode to provide the weld face with a surface roughness;
- performing resistance spot welding with the welding electrode to form a first number of resistance spot welds between overlapping aluminum alloy workpieces;
- texturing the weld face again to provide the weld face with a surface roughness after the first number of individual resistance spot welds are performed;
- performing resistance spot welding with the welding electrode to form a second number of resistance spot welds between overlapping aluminum alloy workpieces;
- dressing the weld face to remove a depth of material of the welding electrode after the second number of individual resistance spot welds are performed;
- and
- texturing the weld face to provide the weld face with a surface roughness after dressing of the weld face.
A method of resistance spot welding aluminum alloy workpieces together, the method comprising:
- providing a first welding electrode and a second welding electrode, the first welding electrode having a first weld face and the second welding electrode having a second weld face, each of the first weld face of the first welding electrode and the second weld face of the second welding electrode being textured and having a peak-to-valley surface roughness;
- forming a plurality of individual resistance spot welds between overlapping aluminum alloy workpieces, wherein forming each of the plurality of individual resistance spot welds comprises clamping the first weld face and the second weld face against opposed weld site surfaces of the overlapping of aluminum alloy workpieces and passing an electrical current between the weld faces;
- texturing the first weld face of the first welding electrode and the second weld face of the second welding electrode at the same time after forming the plurality of individual resistance spot welds to restore the peak-to-valley surface roughness to each of the first and second weld faces;
- forming another plurality of individual resistance spot welds between overlapping aluminum alloy workpieces, wherein forming each of the another plurality of individual resistance spot welds comprises clamping the first weld face and the second weld face against opposed weld site surfaces of the overlapping of aluminum alloy workpieces and passing an electrical current between the weld faces;
- dressing the first weld face and the second weld face to remove a depth of material from each of the first weld face and the second weld face that is the sufficient to remove contamination build-up derived from forming individual resistance spot welds between aluminum alloy workpieces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.