Monitoring of expulsion in small scale
resistance spot welding
D. F. Farson, J. Z. Chen, K. Ely and T. Frech
Although there have been many investigations into
monitoring and control of resistance spot welding
(RSW) of sheet metal having a thickness greater than
0.5 mm, that of thinner components has rarely been
investigated. Monitoring of expulsion in a small scale
RSW process was carried out via measurement of
voltage, electrode displacement, and force change
during the welding current pulse. It was found that
electrode displacement increased steadily during the
current pulse for an expulsion free weld. For welds with
visible expulsion, the electrode voltage had a small but
readily observed spike; the electrode displacement
showed a dip or a decrease in total amplitude; the
force change during a welding cycle was of greater
magnitude. Since the system uses a constant current
power supply, the voltage increase corresponds to an
increase in dynamic resistance associated with the
expulsion event. It was also observed that the
magnitude of the electrode displacement dip was
directly related to the volume of expelled material.
The force change is a relatively sensitive indicator for
use in expulsion detection. Of the three signals,
detection of the voltage spike is the most readily
implemented method for monitoring expulsion in small
scale RSW. It was also shown that, owing to the small
magnitudes of the forces and displacements, careful
design of the welding system is necessary to ensure that
unwanted vibrations do not interfere with the process
signals. STWJ/367
Dr Farson and Mr Chen are in the Department of
Welding Engineering, The Ohio State University, 1248
Arthur E Adams Dr, Columbus, OH 43221, USA
(Farson.4@osu.edu). Mr Ely and Mr Frech are in the
Edison Welding Institute, 1250 Arthur E Adams Dr,
Columbus, OH 43221, USA. Manuscript received 11
October 2002; accepted 2 December 2002.
# 2003 IoM Communications Ltd. Published by Maney for
the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
INTRODUCTION
The small scale resistance spot welding (SSRSW) process
has been widely used in electronic and medical instruments
in recent years. In this process, two or more layers of sheet
metal are clamped between two electrodes and a relatively
high current pulse is passed through the assembly. Electrical
resistance at the interface between the sheets causes
localised melting of the metal and, after solidiŽ cation and
cooling, a spot weld nugget that joins the sheets. Although
there is no distinct boundary between small scale and
normal resistance spot welding, SSRSW is associated with
relatively thin sheet metal, generates smaller weld nuggets,
and thus requires lower current and electrode force. Since
the required current is not as high, the SSRSW systems
DOI 10.1179/136217103225009071
often incorporate switching or linear mode constant current
direct current (dc) transistor power supplies rather than the
silicon controlled rectiŽ er (SCR) alternating current sup-
plies used to generate the much higher currents required for
welding thicker gauges.
A well known defect mode in resistance spot welding is
expulsion, where molten metal is ejected from the sheet
metal interface during the process. Expulsion occurs when
the diameter of the weld nugget increases to such an extent
that electrode pressure is insufŽ cient to contain the high
pressure caused by volumetric expansion of the liquid metal.
Since expulsion reduces the amount of molten metal
available to form the Ž nal weld, it generally leads to surface
indentations and internal voids, the latter reducing the
strength of the joint. The most efŽ cient application of
SSRSW (i.e. highest joint strength with the fewest welds
made in the shortest possible time) demands process
parameter settings that generate welds without the occur-
rence of expulsion. A monitoring technique that can detect
expulsion is desirable to ensure optimal process operation in
spite of variations in sheet material and electrode properties
and to assist in development of optimal process parameters.
Some researchers have reported previous work dealing
with applications of SSRSW. Zhou et al.1 studied the
weldability of thin sheet aluminium, brass, and copper. Ely
and Zhou2 studied the weldability of Kovar, steel, and
nickel in SSRSW. There has been little published research
work focusing on quality control in SSRSW, although there
have been abundant works on that in large scale resistance
spot welding (LSRSW), e.g. that of Shriver et al.,3 Haefner
et al.,4 Chang et al.,5 and Wood et al.6 Fundamentally, the
difference between quality control in SSRSW and LSRSW
is that the former involves a much smaller workpiece gauge,
thus the parameters traditionally monitored in LSRSW,
such as electrode displacement, force change, and voltage,
exhibit much smaller changes in amplitude and are thus
difŽ cult to measure, monitor, and control. It is also con-
sidered that a much smaller welding force should be employed
in the SSRSW process.1 ,2 Since the signal magnitudes that
must be measured are relatively small, it is fortunate that the
lower current dc power supply used in SSRSW also induces
less noise in the signal transducers and wiring than is
encountered in larger, higher current systems.
In the present paper, the electrical voltage and current
and the electrode force and displacement are monitored
during the SSRSW process. The signals are analysed to
identify features that are indicative of expulsion.
EXPERIMENTAL
A Unitek Miyachi (Monrovia, CA, USA) high frequency
switching mode dc power supply coupled to a pneumatically
actuated small scale resistance weld head was used to
produce resistance spot welds. The power supply is capable
of providing constant current, constant voltage, or constant
power for a welding process. In the present work constant
current mode was used. Resistance Welder Manufacturer’s
Assoc. (RWMA) class 2 electrodes, manufactured from
99.2Cu – 0.8 wt-%Cr alloy, with a tip diameter of 2.38 mm
Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6 431
432 Farson et al. Expulsion monitoring in small scale RSW

(3/32 in) were used. The material used for the two ply lap
welds was AISI 302 austenitic stainless steel having a thick-
ness of 0.254 mm (0.01 in). After welding, selected samples
were sectioned, polished, and etched to expose the nugget.
The welding conditions were set according to Table 1.
The welding pulse current levels were varied from 0.5 to
1.5 kA to generate different sizes of nugget and weld metal
expulsions. At the lowest current level no nugget was
formed. At higher current levels the nugget size increased,
with expulsion evident at the highest currents. The Unitek
Miyachi system used for the present work implements a
preweld low current pulse to condition the electrode and
material interface contacts. The prepulse current level used
in these experiments was in the range 0.005 – 0.2 kA and the
duration of the prepulse was 0.5 – 1.0 ms. The welding force
was 177.9 N (40 lb).
The current, voltage, workpiece thickness, electrode dis-
placement, welding force, and force change were monitored
during the welding cycles using a 12 bit computer data
acquisition system with a sampling rate of 50 kHz per
channel. The implementation of the welding process sensors
is shown in Fig. 1. Two leads were clipped onto each elect-
rode to measure the voltage between them. A non-contact
Ž bre optic displacement sensor was mounted in the upper
electrode holder and an opaque target was afŽ xed to the
lower electrode holder. The sensor measurement has a
resolution of 0.02 mm (0.8 min). This arrangement provided
a measurement of the workpiece thickness and the relative
displacement of the two electrodes during welding. A
subminiature load cell was preloaded by three bolts in a 1 Implementation of optical sensor to measure electrode
specially designed sensor seat beneath the lower electrode displacement and workpiece thickness, force sensor to
measure force change and welding force, and voltage
holder to measure the force and force change during
sensor to measure voltage change during welding process
welding. The load cell itself has an inŽ nite resolution and a
maximum non-linearity of ¡0 .25% at full scale. The
resolution of the digitised signal is 0.015 N. In addition, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
the current signal output provided by the welding power Typical current, voltage, displacement, and force change
supply was used to monitor the welding current. All signals for an expulsion free weld, a weld with a small
the sensor leads were shielded twisted pairs to reduce expulsion, and a weld with a large expulsion are shown in
the electromagnetic contamination of the signals. High Fig. 2a – c, respectively. All the weld current waveforms
bandwidth (0 – 10 kHz) signal conditioning modules were consist of approximately square wave pulses having rise and
connected between the signal sources and the digitising fall times of about 0.9 – 1.0 ms. Programmed durations were
board to provide ground isolation and ampliŽ cation. 1 ms or less, and all the prepulses shown in Fig. 2 have a
After construction the whole data acquisition system current level of less than 0.05 kA, so that the prepulse
was calibrated and the resolution of all channels was current waveforms are not obvious, although the prepulses
higher than the noise level measured during welding. For are evident in the voltage curves. Voltage, displacement,
example, the resolution for the voltage (V) channel was and force change signals all show signiŽ cant variations
4V/21 2 <1.0 mV, whereas the noise level in the voltage during welding. Because the power supply was being
was 10 mV. The approximate noise level in the displace- operated in constant current mode, the voltage signal
ment measurement was 0.5 mm and that in the force  uctuations re ect variations in electrical resistance of the
measurement was 1.5 N. The low frequency values of the current path between the electrodes. The welding system is
force signal were useful for ensuring that the welding nominally force controlled, but the upper limit of the
process settings were correct during the performance of bandwidth of the pneumatic system is relatively low,
the experiments. The small in process variations that certainly lower than 10 Hz. Thus, the force and displace-
were necessary for process monitoring and expulsion ment signals both  uctuate owing to temperature induced
detection were extracted from the force signal by high variations in the density of the material in the weld zone as
pass Ž ltering and ampliŽ cation. Noise induced by the well as relatively minor changes in electrode length.
high frequency switching power supply was removed from The voltage waveforms typically reached their maximum
all signals by Ž ve point median Ž ltering. The data value of about 2 V within a few hundred microseconds of
acquisition sampling rate (50 kHz per channel) was the initiation of the welding current pulse. There were
sufŽ ciently high that this amount of Ž ltering removed usually small discontinuities in the initial segment of the
the switching noise without signiŽ cantly attenuating the voltage waveforms that were thought to be indicative of
process signals. breakdown of Ž lms and/or asperities on the sheet metal

Table 1 Welding conditions used in experiments

Prepulse Welding pulse

Control approach Current, kA Time, ms Current, kA Time, ms Force, N

Constant current 0.005 – 0.2 0.5 – 1.0 0.5 – 1.5 5 .0 177.9

Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6

 Farson et al. Expulsion monitoring in small scale RSW 433

2 Sensor signals showing current, voltage, electrode displacement, and force change for a normal weld, b weld showing
small expulsion, and c weld showing large expulsion

Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6

434 Farson et al. Expulsion monitoring in small scale RSW

surfaces. After reaching their peaks, the voltage waveforms

rapidly decayed in an approximately exponential fashion
with a time constant of tenths of milliseconds. If there was
no visible expulsion, the voltage signals were then constant
or decreased slightly until the end of the welding cycle.
However, when expulsion was visible, much more rapid
 uctuations in voltage were noted. At the instant of expul-
sion, the voltage typically underwent a small and sudden
increase and decrease (a voltage ‘spike’) of about 0.05 to
0.3 V, depending on the magnitude of the expulsion. In
some instances, the voltage then followed a trend as if no
expulsion had occurred whereas in others, the voltage
underwent a step decrease, following the pre-expulsion
trend, but at a lower level. In initial tests, such as those
shown in Fig. 2b and c, it was noted that there was some
tendency for the amplitude of the voltage spike to correlate
with the visible extent (the brightness) of the expulsion. This
phenomenon was investigated in greater detail and further
results are presented below. The sudden increase in the
voltage is thought to be related to an increase in electrical
resistance of the current path between the two electrodes
resulting from the sudden reduction in the conducting area,
which is partly composed of liquid metal. The expulsion
ejects liquid material out of the current path at a very high
rate, so that the resistance in the current path shows a
transient upward surge.
As shown in Fig. 2a, the displacement typically increased
steadily to a maximum of about 40 mm in expulsion free
welds. The velocity of the electrode separation increase was
not constant, but exhibited small  uctuations with a cha-
racteristic (peak – peak) time of 1 – 2 ms. After the welding
current was terminated, the electrode displacement
decreased rapidly to a value of about 210 mm and then
oscillated in a manner that appears to be a mixture of two
modes having a slow characteristic time of 5 – 6 ms and a
faster characteristic time of 1 – 2 ms. These  uctuations 3 Amplitude of sensor output change versus weld indenta-
were investigated more fully, as is discussed further below. tion depth
However, when there was visible expulsion during welding,
the continuous increase of the displacement curve through- dramatic reduction of force in the welding cycle excites
out the welding current pulse was no longer observed. As some vibration modes that are evident in the force and
shown in Fig. 2b, for a small expulsion, there was a displacement signals before and after the welding current is
detectable dip of several micrometres in the separation switched off. Both sensor signals appear to consist of a
curve; and for a visibly larger expulsion in Fig. 2c, the mixture of at least two characteristicfrequencies. The increase
retreat of the electrode was much more obvious, of the order of force during the welding cycle is interpreted as an inter-
of 10 mm. Evidently, the retraction of the electrode is due to action among the thermal expansion of the material between
the loss of material from the weld nugget – the more serious the two electrodes,the constant pressure pneumaticallyactuated
the expulsion, the more liquid metal is ejected and the more welding head, and the setup conŽ guration of the force
the electrode retracts. sensor. When there is material loss due to expulsion, the
It might be predicted that the welding force as measured overall thermal expansion rate exhibits a decrease and hence
by the sensor under the lower electrode must also change so does the force on the welding head and the force sensor.
during a weld since the transient change of displacement Welding schedules were carefully controlled to produce
implies acceleration of the electrodes. The force sensor welds showing different magnitudes of expulsion. After
measurement showed the dynamic change of force during welding, the weld thickness was measured and the inden-
the welding cycle. As shown in Fig. 2a, for a weld without tation depth was obtained by subtracting the weld thickness
expulsion, during the welding cycle the force measured by from the total thickness of the two stacked materials. The
the force sensor increases and decreases with a small amplitude of the voltage spike, the electrode displacement
amplitude of about 2 – 4 N. The  uctuation appears to be dip, and the force change were generally found to increase
a mixture of the low frequency mode observable in the with indentation depth, as shown in Fig. 3. The amplitude
displacement curve and several small step changes. The of the electrode displacement signal increased linearly with
sudden step down when the current is switched on and the depth of indentation and the amount of scatter was less
the sudden step up when the current is switched off are than for the other sensors. The rate of increase in the size of
thought to be due to electromagnetic interference. The the force dip was relatively rapid for small indentations, but
source of the small step change in the middle of the weld was the relationship became more linear for deeper indentations.
not obvious. It may have been due to slippage of the sensor There was a large amount of scatter in the voltage signal –
under its preloading screws. There was a slow force indentation depth relationship. Since the depth of the
oscillation with a characteristic time of 5 – 6 ms after the indentation is to some extent a representation of the amount
welding current was switched off. For the higher current of material being removed by expulsion, Fig. 3 shows that
welds where expulsion was visible, the force increased much the magnitude of expulsion can be monitored via the size of
more rapidly in the Ž rst 1 – 2 ms, to an amplitude of about the perturbations in the force, displacement, and voltage
5 – 10 N. Then the force decreased, as observed for a weld signals.
without expulsion. However, when expulsion occurred, the As discussed above, one notable characteristic of the
force decreased suddenly, as shown in Fig. 2b and c. The force signals shown in Figs. 2b, 2c, and 3 is that the decrease

Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6


b dynamics in this case, another experiment was conducted.
4 Cross-section of a normal weld without expulsion and
b weld with expulsion (optical)
in force for a small expulsion is comparable to that for a
large expulsion. In contrast, the displacement dip and
voltage spike for the small expulsion are both much smaller
than that for the large expulsion. Thus, the force reduction
during the welding cycle would seem to provide a more
reliable indication of small expulsions than the displacement
and voltage signals. However, from an instrumentation
point of view, voltage monitoring is the most straightfor-
ward of the three to implement. Displacement sensing, as
implemented on the present system, involves the most
expensive of the three sensors. Also, if the possibility of
interference with manufacturing production is considered,
the force sensor is the strongest candidate and the dis-
placement measurement is the least feasible. The displace-
ment measurement has the greatest capability to represent
the severity of an expulsion and force change has the least.
Figure 4 shows typical cross-sections of nuggets pro-
duced without and with expulsion. The ejected material is
visible at the faying interface on the right-hand edge of the
nugget in Fig. 4b. Comparing the two images, it can be seen
that the weld with expulsion shows greater indentation of
the sheet surfaces. It is well known that expulsion increases
the risk of defects in the nugget. For this particular nugget,
there is a central void that is very probably due to a lack of
molten material to compensate for thermal and phase
change shrinkage during cooling and solidiŽ cation.
The displacement signals in Fig. 2 contain obvious
oscillations. These are most prominent after the welding
current is switched off, and would appear to be due to
vibration of the electrodes or the optical sensor mounts. If
the displacement curve in Fig. 2a is examined closely, it can
be seen that the electrode velocity is not constant – as if the
oscillatory phenomenon is present immediately after the
current is switched on. Similar oscillations have been known
Farson et al. Expulsion monitoring in small scale RSW 435
5 Comparison of electrode displacement as measured
using high speed video and optical sensor for a no
expulsion, b small expulsion, and c large expulsion
to result from  uctuations in the welding current inherent in
SCR power supplies.7 To determine the source of the signal
A high speed charge coupled device digital camera was
used to measure the electrode displacement precisely during
the welding process. The frame rate of the motion analyser
was set to 4500 Hz. A long distance microscope lens, placed
102 mm (4 in) from the weld location, provided images with
a vertical resolution of 1.75 mm/pixel. A Ž bre optic light
source was placed behind the electrodes and workpiece to
project a shadow image of the electrodes and workpiece into
the camera. The tips of the electrodes could be detected
from the position of small mushroom projections that were
observable in the high magniŽ cation images.
Using image processing,8 an electrode separation curve
could be extracted from the images. As shown in Fig. 5, for
a weld showing no expulsion, the increasing part of the
displacement is very smooth and the rate of increase is
nearly equal to that measured by the optical sensor. When
expulsion occurs, the increasing part of the video displace-
ment curve exhibits a dip. The more serious the expulsion
(judged visually), the greater the dip. After the welding
current is switched off, the electrodes gradually return to
their rest positions. There is very little or no regular
oscillation in either the heating or cooling parts of the
displacement curves, regardless of whether expulsion occurs
or not. The corresponding displacement curves obtained via
the optical sensor are also shown in Fig. 5. Comparing the
displacement as measured by the video and optical sensors,
three points are obvious. First, the displacementmeasuredby
the optical sensor lags the displacementmeasured by the high
speed video. The optical measurement also has comparable
but signiŽ cantly smaller maximum amplitude compared with
that of the video signal. Second, the optical sensor signals
undergo a greater dip in the case of a large expulsion. Third,
oscillations are either missing or insigniŽ cant in all the video
signals. Since the video camera is structurally independent of
the welding system, being separately supported by a tripod
resting on the concrete  oor of the laboratory, it is thought
that the video displacement signals are more reliable than the
optical sensor measurements.
Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6
436 Farson et al. Expulsion monitoring in small scale RSW
6 Displacement curve obtained using aluminium optical
sensor Ž xture
Thus the distortion in the optical sensor signature is
thought to be introduced by vibration of the plastic Ž xtures
that attached the optical sensor and the associated opaque
target to the upper and lower electrode holders. The
dynamics of this structure are determined by the material
properties of the brackets and their shape as well as the
mass of the optical sensor. This was veriŽ ed by changing the
polystyrene bracket material to aluminium, which has a
higher modulus and is thus stiffer. The optical displace-
ments measured when the sensor was attached to the upper
electrode holder using the aluminium bracket are shown in
Fig. 6. The oscillation is evident even early in the welding
pulse, closer to the time when the current is switched on.
Thus, correct interpretation of the electrode displacement
signal is more difŽ cult and it is especially difŽ cult to
determine whether or not expulsion has occurred. The
polystyrene sensor was judged to be superior to the alu-
minium design that was tested and further work is necessary
to minimise distortion in the electrode displacement signals.
CONCLUSIONS
1. The voltage, displacement, and force change signals
all have features that correlate with the occurrence of
Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6
expulsion. Thus monitoring one or more of these variables
can give an indication of whether there is expulsion in the
Ž nished weld.
2. Force change appears to be more sensitive for
detecting small expulsions than voltage and displacement
measurement. The force sensor is also the least intrusive
from a manufacturing viewpoint. The voltage sensor is the
least expensive to implement whereas the displacement
measurement has the greatest capability to indicate the
amount of material removed by the expulsion.
3. High speed video data show that the oscillation in the
displacement curve measured using the optical sensor was
introduced mainly by the sensor Ž xture. However, even with
these oscillations, expulsion could be detected and its
magnitude estimated from the displacement sensor signal.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was funded by the Edison Welding Institute
(EWI). The authors are grateful to Mrs B. Christel and Mr
D. Harwig at EWI and Mr T. Newman in the Welding
Engineering Department of The Ohio State University for
many helpful discussions.
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