Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Koki Nakada

Shuhei Ogura

Atsushi Kawakita

Toru Hioki

Takashi Goto

Hideaki Matsuoka

Kyosuke Izuno

Tomohiko Sekiguchi

Tatsuyuki Amago

Manabu Ooga

Ryosuke Kawai

Takashi Asada

Takanori Nakagaki

A spot welding method includes a heating step of energizing an electrode in pressure contact with an Al alloy member to heat and melt a join part by resistance heating and a cooling step of cooling the join part after the heating step in a state in which the electrode is in pressure contact with the Al alloy member. The alloy is a wrought alloy of Mg: 0.2 to 1.2 mass %, Si: 0.4 to 1.5%, and Cu: 1.1% or less or a casting alloy of Si: 7 to 11% and Mg: 0.1 to 0.4% with respect to 100% as a whole. The cooling step includes a first cooling process performed with a reduced amount of input energy to the join part as compared with the heating step and a second cooling process performed after the first cooling process at a higher cooling rate than that in the first cooling process.

Spot welding method

A novel spot welding method for steel sheets and an aluminum alloy sheet, includes stacked sheet materials from a pair of opposing electrodes to join the sheet materials by resistance heating. The pair of opposing electrodes are in pressure contact with both outer surfaces of the sheet sets. The sheet sets include at least a first and second steel sheet, and an aluminum alloy sheet stacked in this order. A first energization step forms a molten pool between facing surfaces of the first and second steel sheets without melting the aluminum alloy sheet. A second energization step causes a melting reaction between facing surfaces of the second steel sheet and the aluminum alloy sheet. The first and second steel sheets are joined via a first nugget. The second steel sheet and the aluminum alloy sheet are joined via a second nugget including an intermetallic compound generated by the melting reaction.

A laser welding method is provided to ensure a sufficient joining strength between metal plates by increasing the area of a joining region while preventing 'burn through' of a molten metal. In the laser welding method by applying a laser beam to a surface of multiple metal plates superimposed on each other, a scanning locus with the laser beam is sequentially shifted from an inner circular scanning locus to an outer one in a predetermined joining region on the metal plates, and an emission interval is provided to temporally stop the metal-plate-surface irradiation when the scanning locus is shifted. Thus, every time the scanning locus is shifted, the molten metal due to the previous irradiation is cooled and increases its viscosity. Accordingly, the 'burn through' is prevented regardless of increase of the area of the joining region, which results in a sufficient joining strength between the metal plates.

Laser welding method

In a laser welding method, generation of relatively large blow holes in a welding part is prevented while decrease in productivity is reduced. The laser welding method for lap welding, using a laser beam LB, of a plurality of metal plates and including an aluminum alloy cast plate includes: a melting path of scanning and irradiating circularly a superimposed part of the aluminum alloy plate and the aluminum alloy cast plate with a first laser beam LBto form a molten pool of the molten aluminum alloy plate and the molten aluminum alloy cast plate; and a stirring path of scanning and irradiating circularly the molten pool with a second laser beam LBhaving a scanning speed Vfaster than a scanning speed Vof the first laser beam LBto stir the molten pool.

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Toyota, Japan

Koki Nakada