A radially slotted welding electrode is disclosed that may be used in conjunction with a companion second welding electrode to conduct resistance spot welding on a workpiece stack-up assembly that includes a steel workpiece and an overlapping adjacent aluminum workpiece, especially when an intermediate organic material layer is disposed between the workpiece faying surfaces of the steel and aluminum workpieces. The radially slotted welding electrode includes a weld face that has a central upstanding plateau and a convex dome portion that surrounds the central upstanding plateau and which includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced trapezoidal weld face sections that include transverse upstanding arcuate ridges. Together, the central upstanding plateau and the trapezoidal weld face sections of the convex dome portion define an annular channel that surrounds the central plateau and a plurality of radial slots that communicate with and extend outwards from the central channel.

A spot welded member includes a spot weld formed by holding a sheet stack of multiple steel sheets between a pair of electrodes and spot-welding the sheet stack, in which at least one of the multiple steel sheets is a high-strength zinc-based coated steel sheet having a tensile strength of 780 MPa or more, the high-strength zinc-based coated steel sheet having a coating with an Al content of 0.5% or more by mass, and in which the heat shock region of the spot weld outwardly extending from an edge of a corona bond area includes a coated layer including an FeAl alloy layer having an average thickness of 0.3 μm or more and a zinc-based coated layer having an average thickness of 2.0 μm or more on the FeAl alloy layer at the interface between the base steel sheet of the high-strength zinc-based coated steel sheet and the coating.

A spot welding process which uses a metal insert as an insert between the sheets to be welded which belongs to the field of industrial welding, in order to prevent the presence of mark or indentation on the surface of the welds. After the welding process, as the metal insert material melts and dissolves between the overlapped sheets, the state of the art does not provide for the use of metal insert as an insert between the sheets, the spot welding process with insert between (2), made of metal powder or solid metal, which is introduced between the interfaces of the sheets (3) to be welded by the spot welding process, the insert (2) (3), by inert adhesive (4) or other material and process which performs this function, wherein during the melting process the metal insert (2) melts and dilutes together with the base material, i.e. the opposing metal plates (3). The alloy of the metallic insert (2) has chemical and physical properties compatible with the properties of the base metal sheets (3), the spot welding equipment requires that its contact electrodes (5) have the fully flat surfaces (6) and Or special contact geometry.

A mounting unit includes a mounting part for a mating surface of a basic structure which cannot be welded to the mounting part and a welding element fixed in a through-bore of the mounting part. The welding element corresponds to the bore and has a thickness at least as large as the mounting part. An annular groove is formed in the welding element. A part of the welding element bounding the groove on the outside forms a form-locking connection element expanded outward and fixing the welding element in the bore by a form-locking connection toward the mounting side. A central region radially within the annular groove is a welding surface for the mating surface, is aligned with or protrudes beyond a mounting-side edge region of the bore with an overhang and is aligned with or projects over the form-locking connection element. A production method is also provided.

A battery module includes at least one battery cell array including a cell frame and a plurality of battery cells, each battery cell having electrode terminals disposed at both ends of each battery cell and oriented toward the same direction, the plurality of battery cells being disposed in a lateral direction when mounted in the cell frame; and a plurality of connection members attached to the electrode terminals of a respective battery cell of the at least one battery cell array at an upper portion, a lower portion, or both of the at least one battery cell array, wherein each connection member is a metal plate having at least three vertical slits that are spaced apart from each other and a horizontal slit that crosses at least one of the vertical slits.

A battery module includes at least one battery cell array including a cell frame and a plurality of battery cells, each battery cell having electrode terminals disposed at both ends of each battery cell and oriented toward the same direction, the plurality of battery cells being disposed in a lateral direction when mounted in the cell frame; and a plurality of connection members attached to the electrode terminals of a respective battery cell of the at least one battery cell array at an upper portion, a lower portion, or both of the at least one battery cell array, wherein each connection member is a metal plate having at least three vertical slits that are spaced apart from each other and a horizontal slit that crosses at least one of the vertical slits.

In a welded joint manufactured by a method of resistance spot welding thin steel sheets, when the diameter of a nugget formed from the thin steel sheets is denoted by d, on a horizontal plane passing through a nugget surrounded by a corona bond, distribution of an amount of P in a region in the nugget surrounded by a closed curve at a distance d/100 from an end portion of a weld zone toward the inside of the nugget and a closed curve at a distance d/5 from the end portion of the weld zone toward the inside of the nugget is analyzed by area analysis, and the proportion of the region in terms of area in which the concentration m (mass %) of P is more than twice the concentration M (mass %) of P of a base metal composition is 5% or less.

In a welded joint manufactured by a method of resistance spot welding thin steel sheets, when the diameter of a nugget formed from the thin steel sheets is denoted by d, on a horizontal plane passing through a nugget surrounded by a corona bond, distribution of an amount of P in a region in the nugget surrounded by a closed curve at a distance d/100 from an end portion of a weld zone toward the inside of the nugget and a closed curve at a distance d/5 from the end portion of the weld zone toward the inside of the nugget is analyzed by area analysis, and the proportion of the region in terms of area in which the concentration m (mass %) of P is more than twice the concentration M (mass %) of P of a base metal composition is 5% or less.

Resistance spot welding of a thin-gauge steel workpiece to another steel workpiece is achieved through the combined use of specific spot welding electrodes and a pulsating welding current. Each of the spot welding electrodes has a weld face that is smaller in diameter than a typical steel spot welding electrode. And the pulsating welding current that is used in conjunction with the smaller-sized spot welding electrodes includes at least two stages of electrical current pulses.

A fill level detection device for electrode cap magazines of welding electrodes includes at least one electrode cap channel disposed in the electrode cap magazine. At least one cap conveyor is disposed in a linearly movable manner, is preferably spring-loaded, is disposed in the electrode cap channel and moves the electrode caps contained in the electrode cap channel toward a removal opening for access by a welding gun. The electrode cap channel has a mechanically connected element which serves as a measuring surface and has an attached and/or fixed side on which a sensor for measuring a distance is disposed. The sensor projects a measuring beam onto the measuring surface to measure the distance between the sensor and the measuring surface, which enables the exact number of electrode caps contained in the electrode cap magazine to be determined by evaluating the distance measured by the sensor.