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.

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.

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）.

Effects of pin geometry on the material flow behavior of friction stir spot welded 2A12 aluminum alloy

A three-dimensional finite volume model was established by the ANSYS FLUENT software to simulate the material flow behavior during the friction stir spot welding （FSSW） process. Effects of the full-threaded pin and the reverse-threaded pin on the material flow behavior were mainly discussed. Results showed that the biggest material flow velocity appeared at the outer edge of the tool shoulder. The velocity value became smaller with the increase of the distance away from the tool surface. In general, material flows downwards along the pin thread when the full-threaded pin is used. Meanwhile, both the materials of the upper and the lower plates flow towards the lap interface along the pin thread when the reverse-threaded pin is used. The numerical simulation results were investigated by experiment, in which 2A12 aluminum alloy was used as the research object. The effective sheet thickness （EST） and stir zone （SZ） width of the joint by the reverse-threaded pin were much bigger than those by the full-threaded pin. Accordingly, cross tension failure load of the joint by the reverse-threaded pin is 23% bigger than the joint by the full-threaded pin.

Influence of pin size on welding shape and mechanical properties of friction stir welded 2014 Al alloy

The influence of pin size on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded 2014 Al alloy was investigated. Three different size stir pins were used to carry out the welding process. The results show that the size of the pin has a significant effects on the joint structure and mechanical properties. For one given thickness material, excellent weld can be achieved by using a appropriate size friction stir tool. The appearance of the weld is good and no obvious defect is found using this tool. The grain of the weld nugget is very fine and the precipitation distributes equably. The weld structure can change smoothly from the weld nugget to the thermo-mechanic affected zone. The tensile strength is high enough and the synthesis mechanical properties of the weld are very good. When welded by an improper size pin, some defects such as voids and crack often occur in the weld, and which strongly affect the mechanical properties of the weld.

Effects of pin angle and preheating on temperature distribution during friction stir welding operation

Friction stir welding （FSW） is applied extensively in industry for joining of nonferrous metals especially aluminum. A three-dimensional model based on finite element analysis was used to study the thermal characteristic of copper C I 1000 during the FSW process. The model incorporates the mechanical reaction of the tool and thermo-mechanieal characteristics of the weld material, while the friction between the material and the probe and the shoulder serves as the heat source. It was observed that the predicted results about the temperature were in good compatibility with the experimental results. Additionally, it was concluded that the numerical method can be simply applied to measuring the temperature of workpiece just beneath the tool. The effects of preheating temperature and pin angle on temperature distribution were also studied numerically. The increase of pin angle enhances the temperature around the weld line, but preheating does not affect temperature distribution along the weld line considerably.

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.

Effect of tool pin profile on microstructure and tensile properties of friction stir welded dissimilar AA 6061e AA 5086 aluminium alloy joints

Joints between two different grades of aluminium alloys are need of the hour in many light weight military structures.In this investigation,an attempt has been made to join the heat treatable(AA 6061) and non-heat treatable(AA 5086) aluminium alloys by friction stir welding(FSW)process using three different tool pin profiles like straight cylindrical,taper cylindrical and threaded cylindrical.The microstructures of various regions were observed and analyzed by means of optical and scanning electron microscope.The tensile properties and microhardness were evaluated for the welded joint.From this investigation it is founded that the use of threaded pin profile of tool contributes to better flow of materials between two alloys and the generation of defect free stir zone.It also resulted in higher hardness values of 83 HV in the stir zone and higher tensile strength of 169 MPa compared to other two profiles.The increase in hardness is attributed to the formation of fine grains and intermetallics in the stir zone,and in addition,the reduced size of weaker regions,such as TMAZ and HAZ regions,results in higher tensile properties.

Effect of pin penetration depth on double-sided friction stir welded joints of AA6061-T913 alloy

Friction stir welding (FSW) of aluminum alloys is currently utilized in several modern industries. The joints must have sufficient elastic?plastic response and formability levels similar to that of the base metal. In this work, double-sided FSW of AA6061 sheet was compared with its conventional single-sided one. An adjustable tool with different pin lengths (50%?95% of the sheet thickness) was used to perform the double-sided welds. Macro- and micro-structures, strength, and hardness of the joints were investigated to determine the optimum pin penetration depth. The best results were obtained for a double-sided joint made by a pin length equal to 65% of the sheet thickness, which showed an increase of 41% in the ultimate tensile strength compared with the single-sided joint.

Numerical modeling of friction stir welding using the tools with polygonal pins

Friction stir welding using the tools with polygonal pins is often found to improve the mechanical strength of weld joint in comparison to the tools with circular pins. However, the impacts of pin profile on the peak temperature, tool torque and traverse force, and the resultant mechanical stresses experienced by the tool have been rarely reported in a systematic manner. An estimation of the rate of heat generation for the tools with polygonal pins is challenging due to their non-axisymmetric cross-section about the tool axis. A novel methodology is presented to analytically estimate the rate of heat generation for the tools with polygonal pins. A three-dimensional heat transfer analysis of friction stir welding is carried out using finite element method. The computed temperature field from the heat transfer model is used to estimate the torque, traverse force and the mechanical stresses experienced by regular triangular, square, pentagon and hexagon pins following the principles of solid mechanics. The computed results show that the peak temperature experienced by the tool pin increases with the number of pin sides. However, the resultant maximum shear stress experienced by the pin reduces from the triangular to hexagonal pins.

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.

Behaviour of Friction Stir Dissimilar Welded Blanks and The Role of Different Tool Pin Profiles

In this study,the forming behaviour of dissimilar welded blanks was studied.Welded blanks were prepared with friction stir welding processwith different types of tool pin profiles.Welded blanks were developed with fixedfriction stir welding process parameters by varying the tool pin profiles.The forming behaviour of welded blanks were analyzed with the limiting dome height test in biaxial stretch forming condition.The results reveal that the formability of welded joints are made with the square pin tool exhibited a better formabilitybehaviour when compared with other profiled tools,this is due to sufficient amount heat generation and high static volume to dynamic volume ratio.

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.

Development and characterization studies on magnesium alloy(RZ 5)surface metal matrix composites through friction stir processing

Surface metal matrix composite is produced on the as cast Magnesium Rare Earth alloy-RZ 5 by single pass friction stir processing using various micro/nano sized reinforcement particles namely Boron Carbide(B_(4)C),Multi Walled Carbon Nano Tubes(MWCNTs),and a mixture of ZrO_(2)+Al_(2)O_(3)particles.Fine grained metal matrix composites having the grain size ranging 0.8μm to 1.87μm are achieved.Grain boundary pinning by the reinforcement particles has resulted in the transformation of coarse grained(∼81μm)base material into fine grained(<1μm)metal matrix composite.Finer grain structure and the presence of reinforcements at the stir zone have resulted in increased and improved mechanical properties of the developed composites.Microhardness ranging between 125 HV and 403 HV is achieved.Uni-axial Tensile Testing of the developed composites exhibited improvement in tensile strength.Metal matrix composites developed using various reinforcements exhibited an increase in strength ranges between 250 MPa and 320 MPa.

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.

Effect of SiC particles on microstructure and mechanical property of friction stir processed AA6061-T4

Friction stir processing of AA6061-T4 alloy with SiC particles was successfully carried out.SiC particles were uniformly dispersed into an AA6061-T4 matrix.Also SiC particles promoted the grain refinement of the AA6061-T4 matrix by FSP.The mean grain size of the stir zone (SZ) with the SiC particles was obviously smaller than that of the stir zone without the SiC particles.The microhardness of the SZ with the SiC particles reached about HV80 due to the grain refinement and the distribution of the SiC particles.

Optimization of friction stir welding parameters for improved corrosion resistance of AA2219 aluminum alloy joints

The aluminium alloy AA2219(Al—Cu—Mg alloy) is widely used in the fabrication of lightweight structures with high strength-to-weight ratio and good corrosion resistance.Welding is main fabrication method of AA2219 alloy for manufacturing various engineering components.Friction stir welding(FSW) is a recently developed solid state welding process to overcome the problems encountered in fusion welding.This process uses a non-consumable tool to generate frictional heat on the abutting surfaces.The welding parameters,such as tool pin profile,rotational speed,welding speed and axial force,play major role in determining the microstructure and corrosion resistance of welded joint.The main objective of this work is to develop a mathematical model to predict the corrosion resistance of friction stir welded AA2219 aluminium alloy by incorporating FSW process parameters.In this work a central composite design with four factors and five levels has been used to minimize the experimental conditions.Dynamic polarization testing was carried out to determine critical pitting potential in millivolt,which is a criteria for measuring corrosion resistance and the data was used in model.Further the response surface method(RSM) was used to develop the model.The developed mathematical model was optimized using the simulated annealing algorithm optimizing technique to maximize the corrosion resistance of the friction stir welded AA2219 aluminium alloy joints.

Influence of the configuration of pin on the quality of plastics FSW joints

An investigation on the quality of PVC joints welded by friction stir welding （ FSW ） with different shape of pin was carried out. The results show that when the rotating speed of stir tool is 1 660 r/min and the welding speed is 25 mm/min, the beads welded with upright taper pin are plump and joined well, the average tensile strength of which is 19. 1 MPa （the maximum is 20. 3 MPa）, being 49. 2% of that of parent material. The beads welded with cylindrical pin are also joined rather well plump and smooth, the average tensile strength of which is 17. 6 MPa, being 45.3% of that of parent material. The beads welded with inverted taper and cylindrical screw pin are only partially joined or disjoined. The optimum welding temperature range of PVC is 180 - 190℃. If the temperature beyond 200℃ the material will be burnt. If the temperature is under 170℃ the material will be joined partially or disjoined.

Consequence of reinforced SiC particles and post process artificial ageing on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir processed AA7075

Friction stir processing and post process artificial ageing was successfully carried out on AA7075 with and without reinforcement of SiC particles producing defect free processed zone with uniform distribution of filler material.Effect of SiC particle reinforcement and artificial ageing times on the microstructural modifications was characterized using optical and electron microscopy,electron backscattered diffraction and X-Ray diffraction.Hardness,impact and wear tests were carried out to investigate mechanical behaviour before and after processing.Reinforcement of SiC particles during FSP and subsequent age hardening treatment brought about nearly twofold increase in hardness and impact toughness values by the combined effect of grain refinement,Zener pinning,dispersion strengthening and precipitation hardening.Significant improvement in wear resistance in terms of wear loss was also observed after processing compared to the reference material AA7075-T6.Fractured surface of post FSP age hardened AA7075 alloy exhibited features of ductile fracture during Charpy impact test.

焊接参数对异种铝合金搅拌摩擦焊公差容限的影响

为了研究焊接参数对异种铝合金搅拌摩擦焊公差容限的影响,采用显微硬度测试、拉伸力学性能测试、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)等分析测试手段研究了不同焊接工艺参数下的A356与AA6061异种铝合金搅拌摩擦焊焊接头的力学性能及组织。结果表明,工件间隙从0 mm增至1 mm,焊接头抗拉强度显著下降,并产生肉眼可见的焊接缺陷;搅拌头规格保持不变,将焊接速度从120 mm/min降至80 mm/min,可促进材料流动从而提高对工件间隙的容限;搅拌针直径从4 mm增至6 mm,可提高焊接的公差容限,且材料融合程度明显提高,不再出现分层现象。