High Strength Impact Welding of HSLA 340 to Al 5754 and Application Prototype

Abstract

Vaporizing Foil Actuator Welding (VFAW) technique was applied to join 4 mm thick aluminium alloy 5754 to 2.5 mm thick High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steel 340 with a 1 mm thick aluminium alloy 3003-H14 interlayer. Welds with consistent peak loads of 17.6 kN were achieved with input energy less than 5 kJ. Tension-tension fatigue testing yielded high cycle around 1000k cycles under the peak load of 40% tensile strength from static testing. Microscopic characterization revealed no continuous melting zones in the welding interfaces. Coupled with lightweight designs, the approach was utilized on prototype production of an aluminium-steel vehicle subframe. Issues related to arcing arose and were tackled during the development of prototype production.