Earlier this month, EWI engineers Jerry Gould and Lindsey Lindamood received the A.F. Davis Silver Medal Award for their paper “Capacitor Discharge Spot Welding of Aluminum, Part 2: Electrode Life Assessments.” The award is given annually to works published the previous calendar year that represent the best contributions to the progress of welding in specific categories. The paper, published in the AWS WELDING JOURNAL November 2021 issue, won for the “Machine Design” category.
A major challenge for high-volume resistance spot welding of aluminum is the limited lifespan of the electrodes. This issue is related to the use of medium-frequency direct current power (MFDC) which produces excessive heat and accelerates wear rates. To address these factors, EWI’s R&D team introduced capacitor discharge (CD) technology for spot welding. The results demonstrated that CD welding not only would produce robust welds, but that its use could double electrode life. In addition, the developed technology was seen to dramatically increase the efficiency of the resistance spot welding process. This greatly benefits the technology’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) footprint.
Jerry Gould is Senior Technology Leader at EWI. His work focuses on resistance and solid-state processes including new variants of the technology. He is the author of more than 175 technical papers and articles on resistance welding, solid-state welding, and welding metallurgy, and holds eight patents.
Lindsey Lindamood, Applications Engineer, is a cross-disciplinary specialist at EWI whose work covers a broad range of technologies. In addition to her work in advancing and expanding the capabilities of resistance welding, she is involved in nondestructive testing and weld monitoring.
The A.F. Davis Silver Medal Award was presented to the authors during the AWS Awards Recognition Ceremony at FABTECH in Atlanta on November 8th.