Interface Phenomena and Bonding Mechanism in Magnetic Pulse Welding

Magnetic pulse welding (MPW) is a solid-state impact welding technology that provides metallurgical joints while exhibiting a negligible heat-affected zone. The MPW process is a high speed single shot welding technique used mainly for joining tubular components in a lap configuration and characteristic length scales of few millimeters to centimeters. It is similar in operation to explosive welding and shares the same physical principles. The nature of bonding in MPW is not sufficiently understood yet and some controversial explanations are reported in the literature. The two major ideas are based on either solid state bonding or local melting and solidification. The present work summarizes our current understanding of the bonding mechanism and the structure in various similar and dissimilar metal pairs joined by MPW.