Aluminum Welding

[JimmyD123]

I am designing some aluminum rails and have a question about the welding. If you look at the attached PDF you can see what i have going on, basically i need to know if the 2 cjp welds onto the 3/16" plate are to much. Is there a min. thickness i should have that plate called out as? Please let me know if you have any answers.

 

[jjl317]

If I am interpreting this correctly, I would have some concerns. I have always avoided welding aluminum wherever possible, due to the loss of material strength of the aluminum in the area of the weld, plus concerns about the difficulty/complexity in welding aluminum, that I have found not always to be well understood (many different weld filler materials depending on the alloy/tempers to be welded, etc.). And I don't believe that I have ever welded aluminum to steel, but I would imagine it would be even more complicated (chemistry/dissimilar metals, etc.).

If it were me, I would consider some sort of mechanically fastened connection.