Development of an Interlayer to join Aluminum sheets for Car body

Environmental impact considerations and reducing fuel consumption are the main current challenges of the industry, especially the automotive section. Reducing the car weight using light-weight materials was a proven route to improve the fuel economy and decrease CO2 emission. On the other hand, the car industry must also meet customer expectations with regards to quality, cost and safety. Various light-weight materials including aluminum and magnesium alloys, plastic and polymer composites are used in the car. Aluminum alloys are more desirable for the automotive industry due to their high corrosion resistance, good formability, easy recycling, and good crashworthiness. Different joining technologies are used for joining aluminum alloy parts to other aluminum alloy parts or dissimilar materials. Using new advanced technologies for joining aluminum structures having strong joints is vital for the automotive industry. Therefore, the number of joining processes continues to grow with respect to assembly requirements. In this research proposal, we intend to design and develop an interlayer for joining an aluminum alloy sheet to another aluminum sheet to be used in the car body. In the first phase of the project, an aluminum based interlayer containing the metallic elements such as Si, Mg, Zn and Sn, and the trace elements, Ga, Bi, Be and Sr, will be designed using the FactSage thermochemical software. Afterward, the designed chemical composition of the interlayer will be made, and applied for joining two 6000 series aluminum alloys, preferably 6111 aluminum alloy sheets using resistance spot welding or hot pressure spot welding. Microstructural evaluation and mechanical tests will be carried out to optimize the process parameters to obtain joints with desired properties.