Tool Downscaling Effects on the Friction Stir Spot Welding Process and Properties of Current-Carrying Welded Aluminum–Copper Joints for E-Mobility Applications

Abstract

According to the technical breakthrough towards E-Mobility, current-carrying dissimilar joints between aluminum and copper are gaining an increasing relevance for the automotive industry and thus, coming into focus of many research activities. The joining of dissimilar material in general is well known to be a challenging task. Furthermore, the current-carrying joining components in E-Drive consist of pure aluminum and copper materials with relatively thin sheet thickness, which are thermally and mechanically very sensitive, as well as highly heat and electrically conductive. This results in additional challenges for the joining process. Due to their properties, friction stir welding and especially fiction stir spot welding (FSSW) using pinless tools—i.e., as hybrid friction diffusion bonding process (HFDB) is more and more attractive for new application fields and particularly promising for aluminum–copper joining tasks in E-Mobility. However, the feasibility is restricted because of the relatively high process forces required during friction stir welding. Thus, to fulfill the high process and quality requirements in this above-mentioned application field, further research and process development towards process force reduction are necessary. This work deals with the application of the tool downscaling strategy as a mean of process force reduction in FSSW of thin aluminum and copper sheets for current-carrying applications in E-Mobility, where the components are very sensitive to high mechanical loads. The tool downscaling approach enables constant weld quality in similar process time of about 0.5 s despite reduced process forces and torques. By reducing the tool diameter from 10 mm to 6 mm, the process force could be reduced by 36% and the torque by over 50%. Furthermore, a similar heat propagation behavior in the component is observable. These results provide a good basis for the joining of E-Drive components with thermal and mechanical sensitive sheet materials using the pinless FSSW process.

Cell-Internal Contacting of Prismatic Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Micro-Friction Stir Spot Welding

“…The max. spindle torques M ̂z for μFSSW were generally very low (3 to 10 times lower than for FSSW [19]), ranging from 0.44 Nm ± 0.03 Nm (tool 1) to 0.69 Nm ± 0.04 Nm (tool 2) for aluminium and from 0.80 Nm ± 0.04 Nm (tool 2) to 1.02 Nm ± 0.05 Nm (tool 1) for copper with generally very low CV for both tools (aluminium: 6-7%, copper: 5%). No trend or significant correlation could be detected for the max.…”

“…Afterwards (third step), the tool is retracted (retract speed vr), thereby leaving a characteristic negative imprint and flash on the surface. The process is highly automated and is typically monitored by using inline measured signals of the axial force Fz and the spindle torque Mz (process variables) [18][19][20]. A recent study [21] revealed the high potential of the process for cell-internal contacting.…”