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ABSTRACT: Friction stir welding is a relatively new II. OVERVIEW OF FSW OF AL ALLOY TO STEEL
welding technology which has been used to join similar and 2.1 Study of butt joints.
dissimilar alloys. Dissimilar Aluminium to steel joints is
required in automobile industries and cryogenic The initial study done on welding of Al alloy to steel was
applications due to weight savings and energy efficiency done by K. Kimapong and T. Watanabe [22]. They
requirements. The following review is a study of Friction investigated the found the effects of varying pin rotation speed
Stir Welding process applied to dissimilar material welding on microstructure of Aluminium alloy 5083 to SS 400 mild
of Al alloys and steels to assess the current status of work steel. The study investigated effects of pin rotation speed, Pin
done in the field. position and pin diameter on the microstructure and tensile
Keywords Friction Stir Welding, Dissimilar, Aluminium, strength of the joint formed. There was an optimum rotation
Steel speed achieved for the weld at 250 rpm. At lower speeds the
joint strength was low reasoned to be due to low heat input and
I. INTRODUCTION at higher speed the authors conclude that there was oxidation of
Friction Stir welding (FSW) was invented and patented by Mg in Al matrix which resulted in incomplete joints. Maximum
W.M Thomas in 1991 [1]. The process uses a non consumable tensile strength was obtained at a pin offset of 0.2mm. EDS
rotating tool which is inserted between the faying surfaces of analysis was carried out on the cross section of the weld and
the joint and it is traversed along it [2]. The welding technique the results (Fig 2) show intermetallic compounds in the upper
has been termed as a solid state welding technique [1]. The region of the interface. The authors also found that a minimum
fusion is produced on account of heat generated by the shoulder pin diameter was required for producing the joint.
of the tool which plasticizes the material underneath it. The pin
does the job of stirring the plasticized material around it to
create fusion of the materials being joined.
Friction stir welding was initially developed for the welding
of aluminium alloys [4]. Studies have been done on similar
welding of steels[4-12] and of aluminium[13-18]. The main
Fig. 1: SEM analysis of weld Fig. 2: EDS analysis of weld
reason for joining aluminum and steel is due to the need for sections [22] sections [22]
weight savings, thus essentially, from a need for energy-
efficiency in automobile industry [19,20]. The methods
conventionally used to join steels and aluminum such as arc
welding have a limitation in the fact that intermetallic C.M. Chen, R. Kovacevic [23] carried out FSW of 6061 Al
compounds are formed [Joining of Al 6061 alloy to AISI 1018 alloy and AISI 1018 steel. The authors used an AE sensor to
steel by combined effects of fusion and solid state welding]. monitor tool wear and breakage. Temperature measurement
Also there is a difference between the melting point and was done using two thermocouples and the data was used to
thermal coefficient of expansion between the metals. It is here run simulations for temperature distributions as shown in Fig
where Friction welding has been proven practical to eliminate 3a. The authors concluded that the FSW of Al alloy to steel is a
the formation of the intermetallic phases and to form a sound combination of fusion and solid state welding. SEM and EDS
weld [21]. was carried out in the weld nugget zone and the authors found
FSW has some distinct advantages over the other welding the existence of intermetallic compounds in the zone as shown
process [22]. The process has lower distortion, good in Fig 3b. The microhardness profile was also measured. There
dimensional stability, absence of cracking of all. There has were some peaks observed in the hardness in the nugget zone
been an increase in the research done in FSW. One field of which has been attributed to the intermetallic compounds in the
interest has been in the dissimilar welding of Aluminium alloys zone
and steel. In this paper the work done in this field has been
reviewed.
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ISSN 2348-5426 International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology (IJAST)
Fig 3 [23]
.
a) Temperature distributions acress weld section b) XRD
Fig 6 S-N curve indicating the comparison of fatigue behavior [25]
analysis of nugget
T Yasui et al [26] studied the high speed weldability of
FSW between 6063 Al and S45C steel. The authors have
experimented with a two material combined tool. The authors
made a graphical representation of tool traverse speed and
rotation speed and have showed the optimal values for each for
an optimal weld Fig 7. A similar hardness profile was obtained
by the authors as in previous cases.
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79
ISSN 2348-5426 International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology (IJAST)
speed and rotational speed were found to be the best Kittipong Kimapong* and Takehiko Watanabe [31] did a
combination for higher quality function which was Chapry study of FSW of Al 5083 and SS400 steel with lap joint
impact value. configuration. The authors found that by increasing the
rotational speed of the tool there was a decrease the shear load
HanSur Bang et al [29]worked on the GTAW pre-heated
of the joint because the higher rotational speed formed a thick
FSW of stainless steel alloy STS304 to an aluminum alloy
Al6061.A comparative study of pre-heated hybrid FSW FeAl3 intermetallic compound at the interface between
(HFSW) and ordinary FSW was done. A study of tensile aluminum and steel. Increasing the traverse speed of a tool
strengths of the joints made revealed that the joint strength of increased the shear load of joints. However, extremely high
HFSW was greater than that of FSW with efficiency being 93% traverse speeds produced the joint with incompletely welded
interface. Increasing the pin depth made the intermetallic
for HFSW and 78% for FSW. The fracture of HFSW specimen
were also ductile. Metallographic studies revealed that the compound thickness thicker and gave rise to an incomplete
microstructure of Al alloy was finer in case of HFSW than joint. The EDS analysis revealed that the interfaces had
intermetallic compounds. A comparison of microstructures at
FSW.
lower and higher traverse speed and tool rotation was done by
2.2 Study of Lap joints: the authors. At low combination of speed and rotation, the
A. Elrefaey et al [30]worked on the FSW of 1100 H24 Al aluminum and steel fracture surfaces showed dimple pattern
alloy and low carbon steel with lap joint configuration. One of that indicated ductile feature of the joint At higher combination
the main features of the aluminum macrostructure of the weld of welding speed and rotation, the fracture showed cleavage
was that no clear onion ring structure, or thermo pattern on the fracture surfaces that indicated brittle feature of
mechanically affected zone, appeared in contrast to those the joint. The chemical compositions analyzed by EDS showed
reported in FSW of aluminum alloys. Fractured surfaces after the phases contained the chemical compositions that were close
the shear test of joints revealed Fe-Al intermetallic compounds to FeAl3 IMC in FeAl phase diagram.
which was cited as the reason for brittle failure of the joints.
The failure loads showed a general trend of decrement with
increase traverse speeds.
Table 1
Results of peel test with various process parameters [30]
Fig 8[31] a) Rotational speed v/s shear load and intermetallic thickness
b) traverse speed v/s shear load and intermetallic thickness
c) Pin depth v/s shear load and intermetallic thickness
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ISSN 2348-5426 International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology (IJAST)
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ISSN 2348-5426 International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology (IJAST)
[16] K. Colligan, Material Flow Behavior during Friction Stir [25] Huseyin Uzun, Claudio Dalle Donne, Alberto
Welding of Aluminum, The Welding Journal, July 1999, Argagnotto, Tommaso Ghidini, Carla GambaroFriction
Pg 229 stir welding of dissimilar Al 6013-T4 To X5CrNi18-10
[17] M. Peel, A. Steuwer, M. Preuss, P.J. Withers, stainless steel.
Microstructure, mechanical properties and residual [26] Yasui T; Tsubaki M; Fukumoto M; Shimoda Y; Ishii T,
stresses as a function of welding speed in aluminium High-speed weldability between 6063 and S45C by
AA5083 frictionstir welds, Acta Materialia Volume 51, friction stir welding
Issue 16, 15 September 2003, Pages 47914801 [27] M. Merklein, A. Giera, Laser assisted Friction Stir
[18] K.V. Jata 2000, Friction Stir Welding of High Strength Welding of drawable steel-aluminium tailored hybrids.
Aluminum Alloys, Materials Science Forum, 331-337, [28] Thaiping Chen, Process parameters study on FSW joint
1701
of dissimilar metals for aluminumsteel
[19] G. Kobe, Aluminum/steel welding, Automotive [29] HanSur Bang, HeeSeon Bang, GeunHong Jeon, IkHyun
Industries 7 (1994) 44. Oh , ChanSeung Ro, Gas tungsten arc welding assisted
[20] S. Ramasamy, Drawn arc stud welding: Crossing over hybrid friction stir welding of dissimilar materials
from steel to aluminium, Welding Journal 2 (2003) 35 Al6061-T6 aluminum alloy and STS304 stainless steel.
39. [30] A. Elrefaey, M. Gouda, M. Takahashi, and K. Ikeuchi,
[21] S. Sundaresan, K.G.K. Murti, The formation of Characterization of Aluminum/Steel Lap Joint by
intermetallic phases in aluminumaustenitic stainless Friction Stir Welding
steel friction welds, Material Forum 17 (1993) 301307.
[31] Kittipong Kimapong and Takehiko Watanabe, Lap Joint
[22] K. Kimapong and T. Watanabe, Friction Stir Welding of of A5083 Aluminum Alloy and SS400 Steel by Friction
Al alloy to steel Stir Welding
[23] C.M. Chen, R. Kovacevic, Joining of Al 6061 alloy to [32] M. Movahedi, A.H. Kokabi, S.M. Seyed Reihani, W.J.
AISI 1018 steel by combined effects of fusion and solid Cheng, C.J. WangEffect of annealing treatment on joint
state welding strength of aluminum/steel friction stir lap weld
[24] W H Jiang and R Kovacevic, Feasibility study of friction
stir welding of 6061-T6 aluminium alloy with AISI 1018
steel
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