TY - JOUR

T1 - Clinching of inductively heated aluminum die casting

AU - Yarcu, Sinan

AU - Behrens, Bernd Arno

AU - Huebner, Sven

AU - Schuchardt, Torsten

AU - Dilger, Klaus

AU - Meichsner, Thomas Paul

N1 - Funding Information: The project ́ Clinching of Aluminium Die Casting Ref.-No. AiF 20279N was financed and supervised by the European Research Association for Sheet Metal Working (EFB). In the scope of the program to promote Industrial Collective Research it was funded by the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) with means of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank the industrial partners in this research project.

PY - 2022/4

Y1 - 2022/4

N2 - The aim of the investigations described in this article is to improve the clinching of aluminum die casting. The focus is on clinching an aluminum die casting alloy by local heat treatment and hence to join them in a process-safe manner. For this purpose, a heating strategy is used to warm up the die casting alloys to reduce temporarily and reversibly the elongation and the yield strength in the material. In preliminary investigations, three different heating strategies (heating plate, resistance heating and inductive heating) have been investigated. Induction heating has been selected as the most suitable method due to the short heating time and the production of crack-free clinch points. In this paper, two clinching tool systems (one with a flexible die, one with a rigid die) were used. For these tools, two inductors with different diameter were manufactured. The effects of each inductor and clinching tool on an aluminum die casting alloy, such as heating time and crack behavior, were investigated. Surface images of the clinch points in regard to the heat treatment temperature were analyzed. Furthermore, the characteristic parameters of the joints such as interlock, bottom thickness and neck thickness were examined. In addition, the strength of the joined parts was investigated by head tension tests. The results of the developed method showed that it is possible to produce crack-free clinching joints below 6 s. Furthermore, the local heating led to an increasing interlock resulting in a 26% increase of the head tensile strength.

AB - The aim of the investigations described in this article is to improve the clinching of aluminum die casting. The focus is on clinching an aluminum die casting alloy by local heat treatment and hence to join them in a process-safe manner. For this purpose, a heating strategy is used to warm up the die casting alloys to reduce temporarily and reversibly the elongation and the yield strength in the material. In preliminary investigations, three different heating strategies (heating plate, resistance heating and inductive heating) have been investigated. Induction heating has been selected as the most suitable method due to the short heating time and the production of crack-free clinch points. In this paper, two clinching tool systems (one with a flexible die, one with a rigid die) were used. For these tools, two inductors with different diameter were manufactured. The effects of each inductor and clinching tool on an aluminum die casting alloy, such as heating time and crack behavior, were investigated. Surface images of the clinch points in regard to the heat treatment temperature were analyzed. Furthermore, the characteristic parameters of the joints such as interlock, bottom thickness and neck thickness were examined. In addition, the strength of the joined parts was investigated by head tension tests. The results of the developed method showed that it is possible to produce crack-free clinching joints below 6 s. Furthermore, the local heating led to an increasing interlock resulting in a 26% increase of the head tensile strength.

KW - Clinching

KW - Die casting

KW - Heated clinching

KW - Joint

KW - Tempered clinching

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125529881&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11740-022-01116-z

DO - 10.1007/s11740-022-01116-z

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85125529881

VL - 16

SP - 223

EP - 233

JO - Production Engineering

JF - Production Engineering

SN - 0944-6524

IS - 2-3

ER -