Effect of small tool pin profiles on microstructures and mechanical properties of 6061 aluminum alloy by friction stir welding

The effect of small tool pin profiles on the microstructures and mechanical properties of 6061 aluminum alloy joints using friction stir welding （FSW） technique was investigated. Three different tool pin profiles： threaded tapered cylindrical （T1）, triangular （T2） and square （T3） were used to produce the joints. The results indicate that the weld joints are notably affected by joining with different tool pin profiles. The triangular tool pin profile produces thebest metallurgicaland mechanical weld properties compared with other tool pin profiles. Besides, the lowest tensile strength and microhardness are obtained for the joint friction stir welded with square tool pin profile. It is observed that the smaller tool pin profile and shoulder diameter lead to narrow region of heat affected zone （HAZ） and a desired level of softening. The fracture surface examination shows that the joints are also affected when welding with different types of tool pin profiles. The fracture surface shows that the triangular specimen fails with a ductile fracture mode during the tensile test, while the brittle fracture modes are observed in the joints fabricated with other tool pin profiles （T1 and T3）.

Effect of pin profile and process parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded Al-Cu joints

In friction stir welding(FSW), pin profile has more influence on material flow especially in welding of dissimilar materials with different yield strengths. In the dissimilar welding of aluminium and copper, the material flow behaviour is complex to understand and thus a study is needed to reveal the mechanism of flow behaviour and the resultant mechanical properties. Three pin profiles, whorl pin profile(WPP), plain taper pin profile(PTP) and taper treaded pin profile(TTP) were chosen. The effects of pin profile on the microstructure, microhardness and tensile properties were studied. Optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and EDS analysis were used to characterize the microstructural features. Among the three pin profiles, PTP profile results in defect-free stir zone and maximum joint properties of yield strength of 101 MPa, tensile strength of 116 MPa and joint efficiency of 68% compared with the other pin profiles. However, the microhardness plots are more or less identical for all the pin profiles but follows fluctuating trend. This is attributed to the heterogeneous distribution of hard Cu particle. The superior joint properties are mainly attributed to the defect-free stir zone formation and dispersion strengthening.

Influence of tool pin profile on the interface migration of friction stir lap joints＊

Friction stir lap joints of LY12 aluminum alloy plates with a thickness of 3 mm were fabricated using several tools with different pin profiles. The effects of tool pin profile on the interface migration of friction stir lap joints were investigated with the comparison of weld morphologies. The results show that the screw thread of the pin plays an important role in the migration of weld interface in the thickness direction. The interface between the sheets will move upwards to the top of the plate when the pin with left hand thread was used. Conversely, the interface will move downwards to the tip of the pin when the pin with right hand thread was used： As for a stir pin with smooth surface was used, the upward or downward migration of the weld interface was largely reduced, but the extension of weld interface to the weld center line from the retreating side becomes more serious. By analyzing the force on the pin according to the sucking-extruding theory for the weld formation, the obtained results have been well explained.

Influence of tool pin profile and rotational speed on the formation of friction stir welding zone in AZ31 magnesium alloy

In this investigation,the effect of friction stir welding(FSW)parameters such as tool pin profiles,rotational speed and welding speed on the mechanical properties of tensile strength,hardness and impact energy of magnesium alloy AZ31 was studied.The experiments were carried out as per Taguchi parametric design concepts and an L9 orthogonal array was used to study the influence of various combinations of process parameters.Statistical optimization technique,ANOVA,was used to determine the optimum levels and to find the significance of each process parameter.The results indicate that rotational speed(RS)and transverse speed(TS)are the most significant factors,followed by tool pin profile(PF),in deciding the mechanical properties of friction stir welded magnesium alloy.In addition,mathematical models were developed to establish relationship between different process variables and mechanical properties.

Formability analysis of dissimilar tailor welded blanks welded with different tool pin profiles

An attempt has been made to study the tailor welded blanks （TWBs） made by friction stir welding （FSW） with five different tool pin profiles. The formability of welded blanks was evaluated at constant FSW process parameters. It has been found that the welded blanks with square pin profile tool produced better formability properties as compared to other tool pin profiles. It was found that the pulsating action of the square pin profile is said to be the reason for this improvement. A microstructural evaluation performed on the blanks revealed that the stir zone created by taper cylindrical and stepped cylindrical tools was less homogeneous than that of the square tool, resulting in less formability. The limiting dome height （LDH） of square pin profile tool was found to be 14 mm while those of taper cylindrical and stepped cylindrical tools are 12.5 mm and 12.4 mm, respectively.

A comparison of three surface roughness characterization techniques:photogrammetry,pin profiler,and smartphone-based LiDAR

Surface roughness plays an important role in microwave remote sensing.In the agricultural domain,surface roughness is crucial for soil moisture retrieval methods that use electromagnetic surface scattering or microwave radiative transfer models.Therefore,improved characterization of Soil Surface Roughness(SSR)is of considerable importance.In this study,three approaches,including a standard pin profiler,a LiDAR point cloud generated from an iPhone 12 Pro,and a Structure from Motion(SfM)photogrammetric point cloud,were applied over 24 surface profiles with different roughness variations to measure surface roughness.The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of smartphone-based LiDAR technology to measure surface roughness parameters and compare the results of this technique with the more common approaches.Results showed that the iPhone LiDAR technology,when point cloud data is captured in a fine-resolution mode,has a significant correlation with SfM photogrammetry(R2=0.70)and a relatively close agreement with pin profiler(R2=0.60).However,this accuracy tends to be greater for random surfaces and rough profiles with row structure orientations.The results of this study confirm that smartphone-based LiDAR can be used as a cost-effective,fast,and time-efficient alternative tool for measuring surface roughness,especially for rough,wide,and inaccessible areas.

Influence of tool pin design on properties of dissimilar copper to aluminum friction stir welding

Dissimilar friction stir welding （FSW） of copper and aluminum was investigated by nine different tool designs, while the rest of the process parameters were kept constant. Mechanical and metallurgical tests such as macrostructure, microstructure, tensile test, hardness, scanning electron microscope and electron X-ray spectrographs were performed to assess the properties of dissimilar joints. The results exhibited that, the maximum joint strength was achieved by the tool of cylindrical pin profile having 8 mm pin diameter. Besides, the fragmental defects increased as the number of polygonal edges decreased, hence the polygonal pin profiles were unsuitable for dissimilar FSW butt joints. Furthermore, the tensile strength increased as the number of polygonal edges increased. Stir zone of polygonal pin profiles was hard and brittle relative to cylindrical tool pin profiles for same shoulder surface. Maximum hardness of HV 283 was obtained at weld made by the polygonal square pin profile. The hard and brittle intermetallic compounds （IMCs） were prominently presented in the stir zone. Phases of IMCs such as CuAl, CuAl2, Cu3Al and Cu9Al4 were presented in the stir zone of dissimilar Cu-Al joints.

Optimization of process parameters to maximize ultimate tensile strength of friction stir welded dissimilar aluminum alloys using response surface methodology

Aluminium alloys generally present low weldability by traditional fusion welding process. Development of the friction stir welding （FSW） has provided an alternative improved way of producing aluminium joints in a faster and reliable manner. The quality of a weld joint is stalwartly influenced by process parameter used during welding. An approach to develop a mathematical model was studied for predicting and optimizing the process parameters of dissimilar aluminum alloy （AA6351 T6-AA5083 Hlll）joints by incorporating the FSW process parameters such as tool pin profile, tool rotational speed welding speed and axial force. The effects of the FSW process parameters on the ultimate tensile strength （UTS） of friction welded dissimilar joints were discussed. Optimization was carried out to maximize the UTS using response surface methodology （RSM） and the identified optimum FSW welding parameters were reported.

Metallurgical behavior and variation of vibro-acoustic signal during preheating assisted friction stir welding between AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T651 alloys

The present work investigated the effects of pin profiles(cylindrical and square),pin eccentricity(0.5 mm and 1 mm)in cylindrical tool and preheating(secondary heating)on metallurgical behavior,variation of vibro-acoustic signal pattern and joint strength during friction stir welding(FSW)between AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T651 alloys.The eccentric tool pins were observed to provide good flowability and intermixing between dissimilar metals,increased the size of stir zone,and the grains in stir zone were sufficiently finer with eccentric tool pin than concentric pin.The magnitude of vibro-acoustic signal increased when shoulder plunging started and drop in signal was noted when the tool shoulder reached its desired depth.The signal magnitude was noted to be higher in welding stage compared to tool plunging stage as the tool took in fresh material during tool movement along the weld path.Preheating the workpiece prior to pin plunging and during welding notably influenced the flow behavior and mixing pattern,and the grains in stir zone were slightly coarser than those in specimen without preheating.Significant reduction in the magnitude of the signal was also observed after preheating.Tensile and flexural strength of joints were also improved slightly when additional heating was employed.