This paper presents a comparative study of the AC and MFDC resistance spot welding process. Both experiments and finite element simulation were conducted to compare the weld size and energy consumption. The experiments were performed on two identical spot welding machines, one with a single phase ac and the other with a mid-frequency DC weld control. The machines were instrumented such that both the primary and secondary voltage and current signals could be collected for energy calculation. The finite element simulation model was developed to understand the underlying mechanisms of the difference between the ac and MFDC processes. The effect of the current waveform was investigated by using the actual process measurements as an input to the simulation model. It is shown that the MFDC process generally produces larger welds than the AC process with the same root-mean-square welding current. However, this difference is more prominent when the welding current is relatively low. Overall, the AC welding process consumes more energy to make a same sized weld than the MFDC process. The larger the welding current is used, the less efficient the AC welding process will become. The differences between the two welding processes are caused by the contact resistance behavior and the electrical inductance in the AC welding process.
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