A novel tool design for magnetic pulse welding of sheet metal using compression coil

Abstract

The Magnetic Pulse Welding (MPW) process is becoming more popular due to its advantages over conventional joining. Although sheet metal joining using MPW is reported, but not as extensively as circular geometry joining. Generally, a single or double-sided H-type coil is used for sheet metal joining using MPW. Relatively poor workability and low durability of such coils raise the need for further innovation in the design of tools. The present study proposes a novel concept of using a compression coil of bitter type with a conceptually designed field shaper to join sheet metal using MPW. Further, this study aims to demonstrate sheet metal joining using the proposed tooling and investigate the weld quality through mechanical pull-out tests and metallurgical analysis (SEM and fractography) of joint samples. The sheet metal samples are successfully joined, and an estimation of energy requirements for the joining is evaluated. Finite element analysis has also been carried out to analyze the variation of process parameters like magnetic field, Lorentz force, stress, velocity, etc., on tools and workpieces. The findings of the same are correlated with experimental results.