1. New welding technique could benefit auto assembly

Sorce: Engineering360 News Desk

Engineers at Ohio State University have developed a welding technique that could help automakers build lighter-weight cars.

The university’s research project has already garnered patents for vaporizing foil actuator welding (VFAW). It will now receive U.S. Department of Energy funding to further advance the technology, which could overcome a longtime auto assembly challenge of joining dissimilar metals.

The technology uses a high-voltage capacitor to create an electrical pulse inside a piece of aluminum foil. In the process, the foil vaporizes and creates a high-velocity burst of gas that pushes two pieces of metal together. The force of the impact bonds the metal pieces at the atomic level, so there is no melted metal seam as occurs in most welding methods.

Glenn Daehn, the principal investigator on the project, says VFAW “consumes less than one-fifth of the energy than a common welding technique, yet creates bonds that are 50% stronger.”

Daehn also says that VFAW can join widely disparate combinations of metals. This enables manufacturers to make auto bodies from high strength-to-weight-ratio materials such as aluminum and magnesium instead of steel.

2. NUST MISIS scientists develop technology that doubles speed of contact welding

Sorce: http://www.thefabricator.com

A group of scientists at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) MISIS Semiconductor Electronics and Semiconductor Physics Department in Moscow has developed a new type of power diode with an optimized silicon structure. The application of these diodes as part of manual or robotic welding machines increases the energy efficiency of the process and the quality of welded joints through a twofold increase of operating frequency up to 20 kHz, the university reports.

In the contact welding process, the impulse frequency of the current directly determines the operation's speed and performance, as well as the quality and durability of obtained welded joints.