A resistance seam-welding operation is performed on two pieces of 2.5-mm-thick austenitic stainless steel to fabricate a container. The weld current in the operation is 10,000 A, the weld duration = 0.3 sec, and the resistance at the interface is 75 micro-V. Continuous motion welding is used, with 200-mmdiameter electrode wheels. The individual weld nuggets formed in this RSEW operation have diameter = 6 mm and thickness = 3 mm (assume the weld nuggets are disc-shaped). These weld nuggets must be contiguous to form a sealed seam. The power unit driving the process requires an off-time between spot welds of 1.0 s. Given these conditions, determine
(a) the unit melting energy of stainless steel using the methods of the previous chapter,
(b) the proportion of energy generated that goes into the formation of each weld nugget, and
(c) the rotational speed of the electrode wheels.