Welding uses molten material to permanently bond two metals. There are numerous materials that are well suited for spot welding.
- Spot welding and seam welding are two very popular methods used for sheet metal parts.
- Spot welding is primarily used for joining parts that normally up to 3 mm (0.125 in) thickness.
- Austenitic Stainless steels in the 300 series can be spot welded as also the Ferritic stainless steels. Martensitic stainless steels are not suitable since they are very hard.
- Nickel and chrome plated steels are relatively easy to spot weld, whereas aluminum, tin and zinc need special preparation inherent to the coating metals.
- Spacing of welds
- Min. Weld to weld spacing = 10 x Stock
- Center of weld to edge distance = 2 x weld diameter, minimum.
- Weld to form distance = Bend Radius + 1 weld diameter, minimum
- Plating of spot welded assemblies can cause problems when the sheet metal is overlapped. This can cause plating salts to be trapped-requiring special cleaning, or potential long-term corrosion problems. By carefully designing the assembly to allow easy draining of plating solutions this can be avoided.
- The mating parts can be self-jigged for easy location prior to welding.
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