Study of the elaboration of a practical weldability window in magnetic pulse welding

This work investigates the elaboration of a weldability window of an aluminium alloy 6060T6 tubular assembly welded by magnetic pulse welding. A destructive test is used to characterize the weld quality. The fractographic analysis of the fracture surface combined with the analysis of the macrographic section of the welded joint allows characterizing two typical weld cases: a potentially permanent weld enabling to undergo plastic deformation and a weld with interfacial discontinuous voids. The presentation of the weld variance in a charging voltage–air gap width diagram gives an operative welding range. The analysis of the impact velocity isovalues in this diagram allows understanding the shape of the weldability window which is potentially convex. The measurement of the wave height at the interface of the welded joint corroborates the qualitative weldability window.