Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Jason M Brown

Zhenke Teng

Pei-chung Wang

Michael J Karagoulis

Thomas R Jones

Blair E Carlson

Andrew Clay Bobel

Robert W Watson

Hassan Ghassemi-armaki

John A Gerke

Russell A Webster, Jr

Methods for resistance welding, resistance-welded assemblies, and vehicles including resistance-welded assemblies are provided. An exemplary resistance welding method includes compressing a workpiece stack-up with an interface material between first and second workpieces to squeeze a portion of the interface material to a reduced thickness. After compressing the workpiece stack-up, the first welding electrode contacts the first workpiece at an operating contact area between the first welding electrode and the first workpiece that is greater than an initial contact area. The method also includes passing an electrical current between the welding electrodes to form a molten weld pool within the workpieces, and ceasing the passing of the electrical current between the welding electrodes to allow the molten weld pool to solidify into a weld nugget that forms all or part of a weld joint between the workpieces.

Resistance-welded assemblies and resistance welding methods

Welding electrodes, methods, and vehicles are provided. The welding electrodes include a body that includes a weld face on a distal end of the body configured to contact a workpiece and apply an electrical current thereto. The body has a maximum diameter of 13 millimeters or less. The welding electrode includes an insulative material covering at least a portion of the body, the insulative material configured to mitigate current shunting upon contact between the insulative material and a workpiece of a workpiece stack-up while using the welding electrode to resistance weld the workpiece stack-up.

Resistance welding electrodes, methods of welding flanges therewith, and vehicles

A method for inspecting a component made of press-hardening steel prior to resistance spot welding of the component includes performing non-destructive testing of the component made of press-hardening steel after hot stamping to determine a plurality of characteristics for the component. The non-destructive testing comprises at least one of image processing, electromagnetic analysis, and elemental analysis of the component. The method includes using a model correlating values of the characteristics to acceptable weld quality or rejected weld quality and predicting acceptable weld quality or rejected weld quality of the component prior to resistance spot welding of the component; resistance spot welding the component if the model predicts acceptable weld quality; and not resistance spot welding the component if the model predicts rejected weld quality.

Methods for inspection of press-hardening steel surfaces prior to spot-welding for improved welding quality

A steel workpiece includes an alloy substrate comprising iron, about 1.4 to about 2.0 weight percent aluminum, and about 0 to about 1.0 weight percent silicon. The steel workpiece further includes a coating comprising zinc. A method of spot welding a workpiece stack-up that includes a pair of the steel workpieces includes providing the stack-up, contacting first and second electrodes to the steel workpieces, passing an electrical current through the stack-up, forming a weld nugget from molten mixing of the alloy substrates of the pair of steel workpieces, forming a boundary layer between the coating and the alloy substrate from dispersion of the coating into the alloy substrate and reaction of the zinc with the aluminum and the silicon to prevent molten mixing of the coating within the alloy substrate, and ceasing passage of the electrical current.

Steel workpiece comprising an alloy substrate and a coating, and a method of spot welding the same

A high temperature substrate coating to mitigate liquid metal embrittlement (LME) cracking in automobile vehicles includes a substrate. A coating is disposed on the substrate, the coating being one of a zinc-based material and an aluminum-based material, with the coating having a melting point of at least 500&#xb0; C.

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Goodrich, MI, United States of America

Jason M Brown