Progress in the welding of AL alloy thin sheet and future prospectus for automobile

Abstract

Since the early 21st century, the automotive and aluminium industries have rapidly developed a variety of advancements in response to competitive, environmental, and technological problems. Reduction in tare weight of vehicle is one approach for dealing with some of these problems. Al alloys have potential to save mass, which is need for fuel efficiency, environment pollution and emerging electrical vehicle. The estimated consumption of Al alloy in vehicle by 2025 is 250 Kg from current 180 Kg. However, the difficulties in welding Al alloy have hindrance their widespread adoption. Al alloys, which are regarded as being challenging to fuse using a traditional process because of its intrinsic qualities, such as its low melting point, high thermal conductivity, high solubility in hydrogen, formation of oxides, and significant solidification shrinkage. Currently low heat input welding process such as MIGW, TIGW, FSW, LBW and EBW are employed by industries for thin sheet Al alloy. However, each of these techniques’ variants suffers from few limitations. Therefore, joining of Al alloy thin sheet is still a difficult and costlier task. Weld beads frequently exhibit many defects which significantly lower the mechanical and fatigue strength of thin Al alloy sheets. This overview aims to provide a concise summary of current advancements in the joining of Al alloys and shows the future prospectus and direction of development in joining of thin sheet Al alloy. The researchers working on joining Al alloys are also intended beneficiaries of this study.