Shear joining of 6061 aluminum alloy parts of circular pipe and bar

In the field of automobile manufacturing, in order to reduce car weight, the introduction of aluminum components is being promoted. Structural components such as suspension arms, which require high strength, are some components that are to be replaced by aluminum components. Under these circumstances, in this study, we investigated the possibility of obtaining high-strength joining of aluminum alloy parts of circular pipe and bar by the shear joining method, in which plastic deformation, without influence of heat and other factors, is utilized, using finite-element analysis and experiments. The results indicated that if 1) the amount of punch penetrating into the material, 2) the clearance between the punch and the hole, and 3) the curvature of the punch edge, which affect the joining strength, are optimized, we can obtain sufficient joining strength of suspension arms.