Disclosed are aluminum alloy products and methods of making and processing such products. Thus, disclosed are aluminum alloy products exhibiting controllable surface properties, including excellent bond durability, low contact resistance, and corrosion resistance. Aluminum alloy products described herein include a migrant element, a subsurface portion having a concentration of the migrant element, and a bulk portion having a concentration of the migrant element. The aluminum alloy product comprises an enrichment ratio of 4.0 or less, wherein the enrichment ratio is a ratio of the migrant element concentration in the subsurface portion to the concentration in the bulk portion. Additionally, the aluminum alloy products surface and/or subsurface can contain phosphorus (e.g., elemental phosphorus or oxidized phosphorus). The phosphorus containing surface provides reduced electronic stress on an electrode tip of a resistance spot welding apparatus, and an extended service lifetime (e.g., weld cycles to failure) of the electrode tip.

A welding method for a new flexible and rollable silicon-based solar module includes the following steps: cutting a cell piece into a small piece cell string including N small piece cells without splitting; cutting a hard protective layer into N small pieces according to a size of a small piece cell; allowing the cut hard protective layer to be covered on and bonded to a glue-dispensed small piece cell string to form a small string cell piece; arranging the small string cell pieces into a small standard piece according to a required size distribution, and covering the small standard piece with an adhesive film; welding positive electrodes and negative electrodes of the small standard pieces in series simultaneously to form a 1P standard part; and arranging the 1P standard parts, and fixing the 1P standard parts by bonding the adhesive films to each other to form a 5P standard part.

The invention relates to an elongate steel structure (10) for a vehicle comprising:—first steel sheet element (11), and a second steel sheet element (12), said first and second steel sheet elements constituting opposite ends of the elongate steel structure and said first and second steel sheet elements overlapping each other in a mid-portion of said elongate steel structure, wherein the first and the second steel sheet elements have an overlapping hat profile including a central portion (17), two webs (18), and two flanges (19), wherein at least one of the first and second steel sheet elements include cut-outs (13) along the flanges (19) such that the overlap is interrupted along said flanges (19).

The invention relates to an elongate steel structure (10) for a vehicle comprising:—first steel sheet element (11), and a second steel sheet element (12), said first and second steel sheet elements constituting opposite ends of the elongate steel structure and said first and second steel sheet elements overlapping each other in a mid-portion of said elongate steel structure, wherein the first and the second steel sheet elements have an overlapping hat profile including a central portion (17), two webs (18), and two flanges (19), wherein at least one of the first and second steel sheet elements include cut-outs (13) along the flanges (19) such that the overlap is interrupted along said flanges (19).

The present invention relates to a method for the manufacture of a coated steel sheet comprising the following successive steps: A. the coating of the steel sheet with a first coating consisting of nickel and having a thickness between 600 nm and 1400 nm, the steel sheet having the following composition in weight: 0.10<C<0.40%, 1.5<Mn<3.0%, 0.7<Si<3.0%, 0.05<Al<1.0%, 0.75<(Si+Al)<3.0%, and on a purely optional basis, one or more elements such as Nb≤0.5%, B≤0.010%, Cr≤1.0%, Mo≤0.50%, Ni≤1.0%, Ti≤0.5%, the remainder of the composition making up of iron and inevitable impurities resulting from the elaboration, B. the recrystallization annealing at a temperature between 820 to 1200° C., C. the coating with a second coating based on zinc not comprising nickel.

A battery-powered electronic resistance welding machine for sheet metal repair, comprising a machine unit (10), which includes a handle (12) and an activation and deactivation button (13), at least one first rod (14), which is constrained in a sliding fashion (F) to a terminal (15) of the machine unit (10), which has, at one free end, a ground electrode or tip (16) that comes into contact with at least one metal portion to create an electrical resistance circuit, at least one second rod (17), constrained in a sliding fashion (F) to the terminal (15), which has, at one free end, a welding or terminal electrode or tip (18) for the fixing of repair accessories of the metal portion. There is a rechargeable battery (11) in the machine unit (10), for example a lithium-polymer accumulator, which allows the electronic resistance welding machine to be powered without using the mains power supply.

A method and arrangement for testing and/or correction of a weld (34, 36, 38) of a test object (26, 102), including alignment of an ultrasonic probe (16, 128) guided by a robot (100) on a target position of the weld (28, 30, 32), determination of the actual position (34, 36, 38) of the weld by means of an optical sensor (22, 130) and alignment of the ultrasonic probe (16) on the actual position, and measurement of the weld, where CAD data of the target position of the weld (28, 30, 32) is made available, on the basis of the CAD data of the weld the ultrasonic probe (16, 128) is aligned on the target position of the weld, and the ultrasonic probe is placed on the weld with controlled force after determination of the actual position (34, 36, 38) of the weld by means of the optical sensor (22, 130).

The present invention provides: a solid-phase spot-welding method with which the welding temperature can be controlled accurately and with which a reduction in the welding temperature can be achieved, regardless of the type of metal material being welded; and a solid-phase spot-welding device that can be used suitably in this solid-phase spot-welding method. This solid-phase welding method involves overlapping metal plate materials and carrying out spot-welding, and is characterized by having a welding preparation step in which two or more metal plate materials are held in a state in which same overlap one another, thereby forming an interface to be welded, a temperature-raising step in which a pair of electrodes are used and the interface to be welded is heated by supplying a current by a direct method, an indirect method, or a series method, thereby forming a softened region in the vicinity of the interface to be welded, and a stress application step in which an external stress greater than or equal to the yield strength of the metal plate materials at a desired welding temperature is applied to the softened region, wherein the metal plate materials are welded to each other by subjecting the softened region to local deformation.

A steel sheet for the manufacture of a press hardened part is provided, having a composition of: 0.15%≤C≤0.22%, 3.5%≤Mn<4.2%, 0.001%≤Si≤1.5%, 0.020%≤Al≤0.9%, 0.001%≤Cr≤1%, 0.001%≤Mo≤0.3%, 0.001%≤Ti≤0.040%, 0.0003%≤B≤0.004%, 0.001%≤Nb≤0.060%, 0.001%≤N≤0.009%, 0.0005%≤S≤0.003%, 0.001%≤P≤0.020%. A microstructure has less than 50% ferrite, 1% to 20% retained austenite, cementite, such that the surface density of cementite particles larger than 60 nm is lower than 10{circumflex over ( )}7/mm.sup.2, and a complement of bainite and/or martensite, the retained austenite having an average Mn content of at least 1.1*Mn %. Press-hardened steel part obtained by hot forming the steel sheet, and manufacturing methods thereof.

A composite hard-surface material preparation method and a composite hard-surface material prepared thereby, the preparation method comprising: dispersedly fixing a plurality of cemented carbide sheets (2) to a surface of a metal substrate (1); and surfacing the cemented carbide sheets (2) and the metal substrate (1) with a solder (3) to obtain a composite hard-surface material, the solder (3) comprising nickel-based alloy powder, tungsten carbide particles and boron nitride powder. The solder (3) used in the preparation of the composite hard-surface material comprises nickel-based alloy powder, tungsten carbide particles and boron nitride powder, wherein the nickel-based alloy powder can increase fluidity and corrosion resistance, the tungsten carbide particle can improve hardness, and the boron nitride powder can effectively reduce friction coefficient. The present solder has good fluidity, high hardness and good solderability, using said solder, the obtained composite hard-surface material may enjoy good wear resistance.