US 12,233,472 B2
Spot welding method for aluminum material and aluminum material
Mai Yoshizawa, Kanagawa (JP); and Tetsu Iwase, Kanagawa (JP)
Assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.), Kobe (JP)
Appl. No. 17/435,754
Filed by Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.), Kobe (JP)
PCT Filed Mar. 19, 2020, PCT No. PCT/JP2020/012522
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 2, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/203375, PCT Pub. Date Oct. 8, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-068388 (JP), filed on Mar. 29, 2019; and application No. 2020-026162 (JP), filed on Feb. 19, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0152726 A1, May 19, 2022
Int. Cl. B23K 11/11 (2006.01); B23K 11/18 (2006.01); B23K 11/30 (2006.01); B23K 11/36 (2006.01); B23K 103/10 (2006.01)
CPC B23K 11/115 (2013.01) [B23K 11/185 (2013.01); B23K 11/3009 (2013.01); B23K 11/36 (2013.01); B23K 2103/10 (2018.08)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A spot welding method for superimposing and spot-welding aluminum materials together, the aluminum materials comprising a first aluminum material and a second aluminum material, the spot welding method comprising:
forming, in a welding-intended position of at least the first aluminum material, an emboss having a circular shape in plan view and with a bulging part in a direction in which the second aluminum material is superimposed on the first aluminum material;
placing the bulging part of the emboss of at least the first aluminum material toward the second aluminum material;
superimposing welding-intended positions of the first and second aluminum materials;
arranging the welding-intended positions between a pair of electrodes;
pinching and pressurizing the superimposed first and second aluminum materials with the pair of electrodes to push-in a central side of the emboss excluding a peripheral edge portion of the emboss so that the central side of the emboss is deformed in a direction opposite to a protruding direction of the emboss; and
energizing between the pair of electrodes while causing the pair of electrodes to continuously perform the pressurizing,
wherein the pair of electrodes each have a tip diameter larger than a diameter of a root side of the bulging part of the emboss to equally apply one electrode of the pair of electrodes to a root portion of the bulging part of the emboss in the pressurizing.