**4. Conclusions**

In this study, we proposed and demonstrated a modified method of explosive welding using a gelatin layer as the pressure-transmitting medium to weld a thin Al plate onto AZ31 and Mg96Zn2Y2 Mg alloys. The resulting microstructure was characterized via OM, SEM, XRD, and EPMA analysis, and we confirmed that there was no significant reaction (formation of an intermediate layer) at the interface. The bonding strength at the interface was also found to be satisfactory as per the results of three-point bending tests. The experimental results were investigated based on the welding window obtained from numerical simulations, and the conditions corresponding to our experiments were found to lie close to the lower limit of welding; further, the welding conditions suitably corresponded with the experimental results. In summary, we believe that our findings can significantly contribute to advancements in explosive welding based on the use of gelatin as the pressure-transmitting medium.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, data curation, investigation, writing—original draft: D.I.; methodology: A.M.; performed the experiments: S.T.; funding acquisition, supervision: K.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was supported by an MRC research gran<sup>t</sup> program from Magnesium Research Center, Kumamoto University.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
