Development of a novel test rig to investigate the fundamentals of impact welding.

Highlights: [•] A novel test rig to examine the principles of impact welding has been developed. [•] Numerical analyses of the impact conditions have been performed. [•] Microscopic investigation of the welded samples has been conducted. [•] The joints of the test rig and the real process are comparable. [•] The test rig can represent all stages of electromagnetic pulse welding. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]