The impact of the corrosive environment on the quality of metal joining process

Abstract

Owing to the main attention as regards the metal joining in the automotive industries, many studies have been conducted to achieve this problem by joining metals materials that can provide high efficiency at minimum cost. However, one of the main factors to be considered is the metal corrosion when exposed to a corrosive environment. Consequently, this paper examines the effect of corrosion on the degradation of mechanical properties on the metal sheets joined by the seaming technique. The effect of corrosion on the joining strength was examined by immersing specimens in nitric acid solution. The tensile experiment was conducted under three different conditions. As supplied specimens, specimens were corroded before the joining process, and specimens were corroded after the joining process. The results showed that deterioration of corrosion affects the efficiency of the joints, causing early failure of the mechanical joint on specimens that were joined before exposure to a corrosive environment. Furthermore, it was observed that the effect of corrosion degradation on the sheet metal that corroded before the assembly process has excellent durability properties compared to the sheet metal, which exposed to the corrosive environment after assembly.