Significance of cutting plane in liquid metal embrittlement severity quantification

The automotive industry is turning to advanced high strength steels (AHSS) to reduce vehicle weight and increase fuel efficiency. However, the zinc coating on AHSS can cause liquid metal embrittlement (LME) cracking during resistance spot welding. To understand the problem, the severity of the cracking must be measured. Typically, this is done from the weld cross-section. Currently, there is no standard procedure to determine which plane through the weld must be examined to gauge cracking severity, leading to a variety of practices for choosing a cutting plane. This work compares the magnitude and variability of LME severity measured from the plane of exhibiting the most severe surface cracking to arbitrarily chosen planes. The plane exhibiting the most severe cracks had more and longer cracks on the cross-section than the arbitrarily chosen plane, resulting in a higher crack severity measurement. This higher absolute measurement increased the relative accuracy of the examination, allowing for fewer welds to be examined to precisely determine the effect of LME mitigation methods on cracking severity, how welding parameters affect LME cracking severity and the predicted LME affected strength of a particular weld.