Analysis of the effect of collision velocity in electromagnetic welding of aluminum strips

Abstract

Electromagnetic welding (EMW) is a specific application of Electromagnetic Forming (EMF), owing to the fact that the latter very often than not precedes the former, which means that the metallic parts to be welded get deformed before getting welded. This is a new application of electromagnetic field. This being so, there are not much efforts made for the electrical characterization of the equipment to improve it's performance. The electrical parameter of the system are analyzed in detail in this paper for welding of aluminum strips of 1 mm and 2 mm thickness (width=400 mm and length=550 mm). The two bodies (to be welded) have necessarily to be separated from each other so that they acquire sufficient velocity before collision. The collision velocity is the important parameter in this process. The variation in collision velocity is computed for a range of separation distances. The optimum separation distance and minimum energy required for welding is computed and experimentally verified. The paper summarizes the analysis comprising of computational work, substantiated by data for mechanical strength tests and the study of microstructure. The correlation between the quality of weld and collision velocity has been established.