Design for Reliability: A Case Study of Remote Resistance Welding Process

摘要

Resistance welding is to bond two pieces of metal materials together by melting the materials in contact area. Elevated temperature is generated by contact resistance when electrical current flows through the interface of the two materials. Generally, current is applied through two close electrodes. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to set the two electrodes far apart when the contact area is physically unreachable. The far separation of electrodes makes difficult to generate reliable welds. This paper describes a reliability and robustness design method for the welding process. In particular, a concept design was conducted to avoid welding failure modes. Critical dimensions of a work piece were defined for the new technique. Then welding processes for various dimensions of work pieces were optimized using Taguchi's parameter design method. Thermal cycle test was performed to evaluate the reliability of the welds. It is shown that the welding process is robust and the welds have high reliability.