Mechanical properties of martensitic stainless steel weld/adhesive hybrid bonds

Hybrid weld-adhesive bonding (AB) was used as an approach to improve the mechanical properties of martensitic stainless steel resistance spot welds. The weld fusion zone in both techniques was composed of predominantly martensite and d-ferrite. It was found that the presence of adhesive does not induce excess hardening effect in the fusion zone. It was shown that hybrid AB/resistance spot welding) i.e. weld-bonding) technique can double the peak load and energy absorption of the joints compared to those of the resistance spot welds. To obtain high performance weld-bonded joints, heat generation during welding should be controlled to produce weld bonds with large fusion zone size, but without detrimental effect on the adhesive strength.