%0 Journal Article
%T An Electrothermal Model Based Adaptive Control of Resistance Spot Welding Process
%A Ziyad Kas
%A Manohar Das
%J Intelligent Control and Automation
%P 134-146
%@ 2153-0661
%D 2015
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ica.2015.62014
%X Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) is a process commonly used for joining a stack of two or three metal sheets at desired spots. The weld is accomplished by holding the metallic workpieces together by applying pressure through the tips of a pair of electrodes and then passing a strong electric current for a short duration. Inconsistent weld and insufficient nugget size are some of the common problems associated with RSW. To overcome these problems, a new adaptive control scheme is proposed in this paper. It is based on an electrothermal dynamical model of the RSW process, and utilizes the principle of adaptive one-step-ahead control. It is basically a tracking controller that adjusts the weld current continuously to make sure that the temperature of the workpieces or the weld nugget tracks a desired reference temperature profile. The proposed control scheme is expected to reduce energy consumption by 5% or more per weld, which can result in significant energy savings for any application requiring a high volume of spot welds. The design steps are discussed in details. Also, results of some simulation studies are presented.
%K Resistance Spot Welding
%K Adaptive Control
%K Nugget Formation
%K Energy Saving
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=56542