This paper presents an experimental electro-thermo-mechanical simulation of high-frequency induction (HFI) welding to investigate the effect of temperature and contact normal stress on the weld seam quality. Therefore welding experiments at different temperatures and contact pressures are performed using flat specimens of 34MnB5 steel sheet. In order to characterize the weld seam strength of the welded specimens, tensile and bending tests are performed. To obtain a relative weld seam strength, the bending specimens were additionally hardened prior to testing. With the hardened specimens, it can be shown that the weld seam strength increases with increasing temperature and contact normal stress until a kind of plateau is formed where the weld seam strength remains almost constant. In addition to mechanical testing, the influence of the investigated process parameters on the weld seam microstructure is studied metallographically using light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, EBSD and hardness measurements. It is shown that the weld seam strength is related to the amount of oxides in the bonding line.
Keywords: high-frequency welding; pressure welding; upsetting force; weld seam characterization; weld seam microstructure; weld seam strength; welding temperature.