Resistance spot welding of mild steel to magnesium alloy

Authors tried to weld a steel plate to Mg alloy plate using a resistance spot welding method. In welding of the dissimilar materials, the authors employed SUS304 insert metal and investigated the effect of the insert metal and the electrode tip geometry on the strength of the welds. The following results were obtained. When the steel plate was directly welded to Mg alloy plate without the insert metal, the temperature around the welded area and the strength of the weld increased with increasing welding current. The reason seems to be that the bonded area increases due to the increase in nugget diameter of Mg alloy and that the oxide film on the faying surface of the steel is easily reduced by the molten magnesium. The insert metal of SUS304 with optimal thickness significantly improved the strength of the weld, however, the excessively thick insert metal increased the amount of magnesium expulsion and resulted in decreasing the weld strength. The electrode tip with flat geometry attached a steel washer improved the strength of welds because the plunging depth of the electrode tip into the Mg alloy plate was decreased, resulting in the decrease of the molten magnesium expulsion.