Method of joining aluminum to aluminum
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsMoreland P. Bennett, William L. Bowers
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Abstract
A method of welding aluminum to aluminum by thermal resistance welding, providing good electrical and mechanical characteristics. The method uses special electrodes for thermal heat that are hard and have a high electrical resistance, such as molybdenum or tungsten alloy and also relies on the aluminum oxide coating on the aluminum to provide the desired resistance heating of the aluminum to cause welding of the aluminum material. The machine disclosed provides a means for securing aluminum leads to the start and finish end of an aluminum winding automatically and simultaneously.
Claims11
A method of welding at least two aluminum members together comprising the steps of retaining the oxide coating on the surfaces of the aluminum to be joined, placing the oxide coated surfaces in overlapping contact, applying pressure to said contacting members through hard, high-electrical resistance electrodes, and applying welding current to said electrodes to weld said aluminum members by thermal heat from said electrodes and resistance heat from said oxide coating.
A method of welding two oxide-coated aluminum leads to an oxide-coated aluminum coil comprising the steps of placing said oxide-coated leads adjacent each other on the oxide-coated surface of said aluminum coil, severing said aluminum coil between said adjacent leads, bringing into contact with one said lead and the opposite surface of one portion of said severed coil one pair of hard, high-electrical resistance electrodes, and bringing into contact with the other said lead and the opposite surface of another portion of said severed coil another pair of hard, high-electrical resistance electrodes, applying pressure and welding current to each pair of said electrodes to weld said leads to said portions of said severed coil by thermal heat from said electrodes and resistance heat from said oxide coating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.