How To: Bond Steel With Aluminum
Aluminum Bonding - what do you need to know?
Let's take a look at more detail and answer questions such as - how to bond aluminum together, joining steel and aluminum and all things bonding with aluminum.
Car manufacturers are increasingly turning to aluminum for use in the making of cars despite the challenges they face to weld dissimilar metals together. Fast becoming a major component in automotive manufacturing, here’s how best to work with it:
Originally championed by Audi, aluminum is finding increasing favor as a structural material in automotive manufacturing thanks to its incredibly lightweight properties.
Attaching aluminum to steel
Audi, which pioneered aluminum space frame construction in mainstream cars when it launched the first-generation Audi A8 in 1994, is saving weight with its next generation A4 design today. The new A4 features a mix of aluminum, high-strength steel and even magnesium in major structures like the body and powertrain.
Welding dissimilar metals is not easy. Steel and aluminum, for example, are unsuited to resistance spot welding, the low-cost method typically used in the automotive sector to bond two pieces of sheet steel together. According to the US Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the mismatched metals tend to react in the molten pool to create brittle compounds. These serve to weaken the joint after it cools.
“Honda claims to be the first carmaker in the world to have successfully welded steel with aluminium”
Steel also has little affinity for welding to other low-density metals such as magnesium and titanium.
As carmakers look to reduce tailpipe emissions in the next generation of lightweight cars, it will become increasingly desirable to weld dissimilar metals together, to join aluminum roofs to high-strength steel B pillars, or to incorporate aluminum parts into (steel) car door structures to save weight, and thus meet demanding environmental targets.
Welding steel and aluminum
Japanese carmaker Honda claims to be the first carmaker in the world to have successfully welded steel with aluminum suitable for automotive bodies using a technique developed at the Welding Institute in the UK in 1991 called friction stir welding, which uses a tool to mechanically mix the two metals without heating them to their melting points. The aluminum is softened by applying frictional heat and mechanical pressure, and the pieces are attached to one another by creating a new metal that is a combination of the steel and aluminum (an intermetallic compound).
Securing metals with screws and adhesives
In England, sports car marker Lotus has been building cars with aluminum chassis since the low-volume Elise was introduced in the mid-1990s, but none of these vehicles are welded, but rather held together with screws and adhesives.
Whatever method is used, there is a definite benefit to employing a diverse range of metals within a vehicle. The new, fifth-generation Audi A4 is some 120 kg lighter than its predecessor thanks to the use of aluminum, says Audi.
Download free CADs and try before you buy
Free CADs area available for most solutions, which you can download. You can also request free samples to make sure you’ve chosen exactly what you need. If you’re not quite sure which solution will work best for your application, our experts are always happy to advise you.
Whatever your requirements, you can depend on fast despatch. Request your free samples or download free CADs now.
Questions?
Email us at sales@essentracomponents.com or speak to one of our experts for further information on the ideal solution for your application 800-847-0486.