Effect of Spot Weld Position Variation on Quality of Automobile Sheet Metal Parts

Resistance spot welding is the most preferred and widely used method for joining metal sheets in automotive and many other industrial assembly operations. The body of a car is typically joined by thousands of spot welds. One of the many geometrical factors affecting the final geometrical outcome of the metal part assemblies is the welding process considering welding sequence used when the parts are welded together. The spot welds guarantee the strength of the car, but their positions also affect the geometrical quality of subassemblies and the final product. In practice, the positions of the weld points often deviate from nominal position. By analyzing industrial scanning data, deviations of spot weld positions are found to be of magnitudes up to 19 mm. In this paper, the influence of variation in position of spot welds is investigated with respect to geometrical quality, by simulating and analyzing the geometrical variation of an A-pillar assembly. KeywordsTolerance, Spot Welding, Simulation.