Computer‐aided design for flash welds

This paper describes a numerical method for computer‐aided design and checking of flash welds. The computer programmes developed help the weld designer to select sets of possible process parameters taking due account of constraints arising from the nature of the welding process, the material, and the size and shape of workpieces. Each weld can be rapidly checked on the computer in terms of thermal cycles, plastic softening and also loss of material as a result of melting during pre‐flashing and flashing; it is then easy to identify a small range of variations in the process parameters which need only a few tests to finalise and optimise the weld design.