The effect of welding time and welding currents on weld nugget and tensile properties of thin aluminum A1100 by micro resistance spot welding

In this paper, the electric resistance spot welding process was applied to thin Aluminum A1100 used for investigating the micro joining process. Resistance spot welding parameter such as, electrode form, electrode material, voltage and electrode force were stayed constant. This experiment uses different welding time and welding current to identify the optimum welding parameters for maximum joint strength. This paper studies the characteristic of resistance spot welded of an A1100 aluminum thin sheet with 0.4 mm in thickness. Material was cut by ANSI/AWS standard dimension. The performance is measured by tensile shear test and microstructure test. The tensile test was measured in the polymer technology center of BPPT (the research center of Indonesia). The thickness of specimen is 0.4 mm. It has Thermal Conductivity 222W/m-K, Melting Point 643-657.2°C, Solidus 643°C and Liquidus 657.2°C. The effect of welding current and welding time will give better performance, such as nugget weld and tensile properties. The welding time and welding current yield the square of nugget zone size or a hole of the specimen. From the results, the maximum load of specimen of 272N can be achieved with the welding parameters of holding time 10 second, cycle time 1, and welding current 2 kA. This welding result has the 292.1 mm² nugget size, and 107.85 mm² fracture size. This experiment shows the optimum welding parameters that can be used in micro joining application (thin plate).