Dr. Anthony Ananthanarayanan of Innovative Weld Solutions Ltd., made a presentation to the US Car Group at their offices in Southfield, Michigan on Monday, February 06, 2012 proposing two US Car funded projects at IWSL’s factory in Dayton, Ohio listed below:
- Focused Current Resistance Welding (FCRW) of magnesium alloy casting and sheet materials to each other with robotic transgun equipment with weld currents not exceeding 50 kA and weld force not exceeding 1500 pounds in order to demonstrate the capability of IWSL’s patent pending FCRW process with commonly used robotic equipment in automotive assembly plants
- Development of Magnesium-aluminum alloy FCRW welds through diffusion barrier layers that prevent the generation of brittle intermetallic compound layers in the weld region”
he US Car Group’s responses to the above proposals is awaited
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| Dr. V. (Anthony) Ananthanarayanan attended a “Workshop on the design and manufacture of light vehicle structures” at the Ohio State University’s (OSU) Center for Automotive Research on January 20, 2012 as an invited participant. The meeting was primarily organized by OSU, Honda of America and Alcoa(Aluminum Company of America) and attended by the General Motors Company and Chrysler Corporation among others. The objective of the workshop was to come up with an organizational and facilities structure that would facilitate the design, construction and testing of light weight vehicle structures. |
Dr. V. (Anthony) Ananthanarayanan has been invited to make a presentation titled, “You can’t spot weld aluminum or magnesium… or can you?” at their symposium on “Sustainable materials, manufacturing and design” on January 19, 2012.
Please click here for a copy of the presentation.
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| A fast paced presentation of ideas on Sustinable Manufacturing, Materials and Design. A speech by Dr.Anthony on January 19th, 2012 at The Ohio State University on spot welding of Aluminium, for further details click here |
A visit was made by V. Anthony Ananthanarayanan and IWSL Business Manager in Canada, Dan Thomas to St. Georges, Quebec, Canada to visit Manac, Inc. for discussions on implementing IWSL’s patent-pending aluminum alloy welding technology in the manufacture of flatbeds and tractor-trailers
- A decision was made to weld 2-3 full size flat beds at IWSL’s factory in Dayton, Ohio for durability testing by Manac, Inc.
- IWSL will also send a proposal and timelines on potentially seam welding the top cab aluminum alloys sheets using their patent-pending process.
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| A visit was made on November 19, 2011 to attend Honda-The Ohio State University partnership on “Light Structures Consortium” tailgate on the OSU campus in Columbus, Ohio |
| A visit was made to A.O.Smith Corporation, Ashland City, TN during November 17 and 18, 2011 to set up an automatic “goodweld-bad weld” decision making system on their hot-water tank resistance seam welds |
| Innovative Weld Solutions Ltd. received Dr. David R. Sigler of General Motors R&D to witness spatter and flash free resistance welding of Magnesium alloy weld coupons over a weld current range exceeding 15% from the low limit to the high limit current values. In the entire range, the welds and the weld process were free from spatter at the electrode-metal interface or flash along the weld interface. The welds were also found to be strong in peel tests in the entire range of currents. IWSL has been invited to GM R&D in the first week of December 2011 for discussions on follow-up work. |
| Innovative Weld Solutions Ltd. received Mr. Robert J Wittman of BAE Systems, Fairfield, Ohio for proof-of welding concept-samples of thick (5 mm thick) to thin (0.8 mm thick) heat treated Aluminum alloy 6061 T-6 sheets. These thick-thin sheet combinations were welded satisfactorily with no thinning of the thin sheets in a weld current range of more than 15% using IWSL’s patent-pending Focused Current Resistance Welding (FCRW) process. Discussions on follow-up work are planned for January 2012. |
| Innovative Weld Solutions Ltd have received a $50000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development towards EMTEC and University of Dayton assistance with manufacturing engineering and business aspects of their new factory at 1701 Farr Drive, Dayton, Ohio |
| IWSL has been invited to help optimize gas metal arc (GMA) welds in a steering column assembly by ThyssenKrupp Presta. A one day visit to Atlanta, GA will be made on July 28, 2011 for this purpose |
IWSL carried out a Laser Weld Quality System review at ThyssenKrupp Presta, Terre Haute, IN recently. The following were included in the work done
- A review of their welding practices and inspection method to assess conformance to ISO Standard 13919-1 EN on “Electron and Laser Beam Welded Joints”
- Arrive at a list of gaps that need to be filled
- A training call that reviewed the above ISO Standard requirements
- A training class on “Laser Welding: Basics and Items for process stability in a large volume manufacturing environment”
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| IWSL opened up their laboratory-factory at 1701 Farr Drive, Dayton, Ohio with nearly 5000 square feet in manufacturing space and 2000 square feet in laboratory-office-training facilities. The facility will house a complete welding metallurgy laboratory and a 400 kVA resistance weld machine at the start |
| IWSL have been awarded a $15000 grant from the Dayton Development Coalition to validate their Focused Current Resistance Welding (FCRW) technology on flatbed truck aluminum alloy parts by carrying out welding trials at the Edison Welding Institute; The work at EWI to validate FCRW welds followed by tensile and fatigue tests is proposed to be completed by mid-September 2011 |
| During June 2011, IWSL was paid a visit by Mr. S. Dharmalingam, General Manager, Quality, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Tiruchirappalli, India to discuss potential cooperative work involving IWSL, The Ohio State University’s Welding Engineering Program and the Edison Welding Institute |
| Working with a Canadian Flatbed manufacturer to compare the strength and durability of riveted and FCRW welded construction |
| Procuring multilayered Novelis Fusion material to carry out FCRW trials |
| Working with PECo to try Focused Current CD welding of 6061-T6 alloy |
| Working with Comau Inc. to put together a robotic FCRW welding cell |
| Working with GM and Chrylser LLC on Magnesium alloy and Magnesium-Aluminum alloy combinations with innovative FCRW filler metal selection |
