This article was downloaded by: [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] On: 03 October 2013, At: 04:05 Publisher:

Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Welding International
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/twld20

Current state and development of friction stir welding (review). Part 2. Improvement of tools and welding method
M.S. Shtrikman
a a

Research Institute of Aviation Technology (NIAT) Published online: 20 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: M.S. Shtrikman (2008) Current state and development of friction stir welding (review). Part 2. Improvement of tools and welding method, Welding International, 22:10, 712-719, DOI: 10.1080/09507110802469060 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09507110802469060

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Welding 712 International Vol. 22, No. 10, October 2008, 712719 Selected from Svarochnoe Proizvodstvo 2007 60 (10) 2532

M.S. Shtrikman

Current state and development of friction stir welding (review). Part 2. Improvement of tools and welding method
M.S. Shtrikman Research Institute of Aviation Technology (NIAT)

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

The design of the tools and geometry of the individual elements of the tool the working tool and the probe, i.e. the most important designtechnological parameters of frictions stir welding (FSW) have the strongest effect on the formation of the structure of the welded joint as a whole 1. As mentioned in the first part of the review, in welding, the tool is subjected to high loads. The torque, rotating the tool, generates friction heating of the material, and the forces applied to the tool ensure the movement of the tool in the mass of the material in the welding direction. The surfaces of the rotating working tool and of the probe, which are in contact with the material of the edges, form friction couples which take direct part in the process of friction heating and formation of plastic flows. The high cyclic stresses in the tool in FSW (twisting with alternating bending) require developments in two main directions: increase of the efficiency of the thermal mechanical interaction of the tool with the material of the joint; the use of stronger and more wear-resistant materials for the tool. The following practical goals are considered here: increase of the service life of the tool; the possibility of increasing the thickness of the welded component; expansion of the range of the welded materials (alloys of Ti, Cu, Mg, steel, etc); increase in productivity (welding speed), the solution of the problem of removing the crater at the end of the weld and of defects in the crater; the

3 5

Figure 1. Tool 1 for FSW with smooth contact 2 of the surfaces of the working pin 3 and the probe 4 and in the internal diameter of the turn 5.

possibility of building components of different form with joints of different types, etc. A large number of proposals regarding the design of the tool were patented in the 90s. In one of the early patents of the TWI (Great Britain) 2, a tool was proposed for FSW with a large number of variants of the shape of the working tool2,3. The main features of these claims were as follows: the conical form of the tool; different form of the cross-section of the tool; the presence of at least one projection, a spiral thread or some other fragments on the conical surface of the tool intensifying the processes of stirring and plastic flow of the material. The length of the tool depends on the length of the welded edges, and the ratio of its diameter in the zone of the probe to the length is approximately 4:1 when the thickness of the edges is 36 mm, and up to 1:1 when the thickness of the edges is 1525 mm. The efficiency of the tool was greatly increased when helical threading was produced on the surface of the working tool 4, and also in modification of the probe of the tool 3 with ring-shaped or spiral grooves and other elements of the relief made on the cupola-shaped surface. Consequently, it was possible to produce joints with a high density of the welded joint in welding 6082 aluminium alloy with the thickness of 1.212.7 mm with satisfactory reproducibility of the quality. In reference 5 special attention is given to the need for smooth contact of the surfaces of all elements of the relief on the working tool thus reducing the risk of failure of the tool in welding. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the smooth contact in the area of intersection of the surfaces of the working tool and the probe. Figure 1 shows a tool for friction stir welding of high-strength aluminium alloys with this configuration of the surfaces of the tool and the probe, and also with helical threading on the tool in which the ratio of the external diameter of the turn to the internal one increases, and the pitch of the helix decreases in the direction from the probe to the end of the tool, and there is a smooth contact of the surfaces of the turns with the internal diameter. This tool makes it possible to join components of large thickness (up to 25.4 mm) of aluminium alloys and also increase the welding speed 5. An effective element of the relief of the surface of the tool has been produced by the authors of the invention (Patent 02/00908, Sweden) in which the working pin of

ISSN 0950-7116 print/ ISSN 1754-2138 online 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09507110802469060 http://www.informaworld.com

Welding International

713

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

AA 3

4 5 6

w Figure 2. FSW tool: 1) working pin; 2) spiral cavity; 3) the welded material; 4, 6) the sharp edges of the helical threading; 5) the outer surface of the helical threading turns.
w

3 2

Figure 3. FSW tool with regulated extension of the working rod 2 in relation to the support boss 3 (with the body 1), rotation in different directions (using a single row) and supply of the filler material into the welding zone (through the circuit 4).

the tool for butt welding is produced in the form of a truncated cone whose surface contains helical threading. The turns of the threading intersect under a large angle by 23 helical grooves along the entire length of the rod (Figure 2). The presence of these grooves increases the screw effect and additionally reduces the fraction of the volume of the working tool in the volume of treatment

of the material by a rotating tool. Both these special features of the design result in more rapid movement of the material heated to the plastic condition, fragment transition and the dispersion of the oxides. An important stage in the improvement of the tool has been the development associated with the solution of the problem of removal or preventing the formation of the crater at the end of the weld in displacement of the rotating working tool from the joint. Researchers at NASA in Huntsville (USA) and a number of other organisations have developed the design of a tool with the possibility of the axial displacement of the pin in relation to the body with the probe of the tool 6,7. This tool (Figure 3) can be used for welding without changing the tool for every thickness of the component and setting the extension of the working pin in relation to the probe corresponding to the thickness of the component. Because of the possibility of automatic regulation of the extension of the working rod, the method may be used automatic loading of joins of components with a variable cross-section of the edges. In addition to this, the problem of welding without the formation of the crater at the end of the welded joint or with the removal of the crater, has been solved. The separation of the drives of the working pin and the body with the probe of the tool has expanded the possibilities in technology. New technological methods of welding and designer of welding heads with separate control of the speed and direction of rotation of the working rod and the probe have been developed. It is now possible to introduce a filler metal into the welded joint 5 in the vicinity of the working rod (Figure 3). In further developments of the design of the tool 57 a tendency has been retained for the intensification of the plastic flow and mixing of the materials and also decrease in the level of the resistance of the material during movement of the tool in it. The TWI developed and tested tools of the series Whorl and Triflute5, 7 for joining plates of aluminium alloys of grade 6000 with the thickness of 25 and 40 mm in one-sided approach and up to 75 mm in twosided approach. The form of the relief of the working pin of these tools (Figure 4) ensures that the volume of the pin is considerably smaller than the volume of the treated material (the working space of the tool). As the difference in the volumes of the working rod and of its working space increases, the design of the tool becomes more efficient 5 because this is characterised by suitable conditions for the free flow of the material, heated to the plastic condition. It has also been reported 7 that even more intensive flow of the material around the tool is obtained when the distance between the turns of the helical threading on the working rod is greater than the thickness of the turns, and the flow decreases in the direction from the base to the end of the rod (Figure 4 a ). In reference 8 the results of three-dimensional modelling with the application of the dynamics of flow of the liquid shows the advantages of another tool, type MX Trivex (Figure 5) in comparison with the tool MX Triflute . For the comparable value of the strength of the joints (480 and 470 MPa, respectively), theTrivex

714

M.S. Shtrikman

tool is stronger and simpler to use, because the form of its working pin is very simple, i.e. truncated three- or four-sided pyramid, which does not contain threading on the surface. However, the results require further extensive experimental confirmation. In welding, a small amount of metal may be displaced to the top surface of the welded joints. Boeing Co developed 9 a tool with radial cutters removing the excess metal from the topside. Attention should be given to the proposal to act on the mass of the material heated to the plastic condition by vibration forces by mechanical oscillations of the welding tool 10 or pulsating forces using the tool of a special shape 11. In the first case, to introduce vibrations into the ductile weld metal (Figure 6), it is necessary to use special auxiliary mechanisms and a high strength, especially fatigue strength, of the tool. In the second case 11 vibrations are generated as a result of the small angle of deviation of the plane of the probe from the plane, orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the tool. The vibration in the moving mass of the plastic material supports the changes in the structure of the welded joint and results in hardening of the joint. The existence of various types of welded structures and of types of welded joint used in the structures required the development of special tool design for every practical task. For example, to produce a packet of two or more sheets by lap welding, the tool of the series Flared Triflute has been developed (Figure 4 c ). In a lap welded joint, the welded surfaces of the interface of the welded elements are oriented in the plane normal to the axis of the tool, in contrast to the butt joint, where the axis of the tool is situated in the plane of the joint. This greatly changes the task solved using the given tool. If the tool MX Triflute should ensure the formation of the welded joint with the smallest width in butt welding, in lap welding it is necessary to weld a large area of the contact surfaces in order to produce the largest zone with metallic bond on the contact surfaces. Tools of the series Flared Triflute have been developed for this application (Figure 4 c ). For lap welding, especially in the components working in the fatigue failure conditions, the most important condition of strength is the sufficiently large width of the welded joint and only a small deviation of the boundary of the welded component in the zone of approach in relation to the boundary of the welded joint, and also the absence of clusters of particles of the oxides on the boundaries 9,10. Figure. 4 c shows the working rod of the Flared Triflute tool for lap welding with three direct grooves, expanding in the direction to the end in order to increase the diameter of the treatment zone. Because of these special features of the tool, the flow of the material around the working pin and below it is more intensive, the efficiency of mixing of the material, and fragmenting and dispersion of the oxides in the welding zone improve 5. A large increase of the working space of the pin in rotation without increase of its volume was obtained in reference 11 as a result of inclining the axis of the working rod of the Skew tool in relation to the axis of

a)

b)

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

c) Figure 4. FSW tools: a) Whorl; b) MX Triflute for butt welding; c) Flared Triflute for lap welding. Y

X a Figure 5. The cross-section of the working rod of Trivex tool. Figure 6. The direction of force vibrations of the tool in FSW.

the spindle of the machine (the axis of rotation of the tool) (Figure 7). The position of the focus on the axis of rotation influences the amplitude of orbital rotation of the probe. A special feature of the Skew tool is the possibility of additional decrease of the volume of the rod as a result of removing its internal part, because due to the inclination of the axis of the rod, the internal part is not included in operation above the welded material during rotation of the rod. In reference 5 it is confirmed

Welding International
w

715

Focus

Working volume of tool Figure 7. Principal design of Skew tool: a) side view; b) front view; c) rotating tool.

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

Figure 8. Macrosection of a welded joint produced by FSW by the Re-Stir procedure (vw = 198 mm/min, the reversal of rotation after 10 revolutions, alloy 5083, sheet thickness 6 mm, tool Flared Triflute).

and Twin-Stir technology 19 the additional heat input makes it possible to increase the welding speed at a lower speed of rotation of the tool, reduce the asymmetry of the welded joints and also reduce the force of displacement and the torque on the tool. In welding by the Twin-Stir tandem method (Figure 9 b ) additional heating is ensured by the first tool facilitating the operation of the second tool and increasing the thickness of the welded components. In reference 16 it was also possible to refine the grains and the residual oxides in the joint. The Twin-Stir tandem method 14 includes a welding method in which the tools are situated on different sides of the sheets to be welded. Consequently, the thickness of the welded sheets may be doubled. However, this technology,

that in comparison with the conventional tool, the application of the Skewed tool reduced the axial force, acting on the component, by 20%, doubled the welding speed and resulted in the formation of joints with the highest characteristic. The volume of the working rod was minimised in a series of tools 13 confirming the high efficiency of these tools. Systematic investigations carried out at the TWI in the friction stir welding process resulted in the development of a number of designs of the tool and technological procedures of the process 1119,etc. Special features of the Re-Stir welding method were described in reference 14. The method is based on the cyclic translational movement of the tool14,15. This solved the problem of the asymmetry of the welded joints, typical of the conventional FSW. The welded joints are symmetric (Figure 8) with high fatigue characteristics but, according to the authors, the industrial application of the Re-Stir process requires more detailed examination and optimisation of the welding conditions. The method of FSW with simultaneous use of two or more tools (technology Twin-Stir) has been proposed14 for several applications (Figure 9): parallel displacement of two tools, tandem the displacement of the tools along the line of the joint behind each other; displacement of the tools with misalignment (Staggered)for ensuring the processing of the edge zones which is very important for lap welding. In welding by the Twin-Stir method with the parallel tools (Figure 9 a) the thickness of the upper sheet may be reduced (in sharp bending of the boundary of the contact surfaces of the welded sheets in the vicinity of the weld boundary). After development of the design of the head

a)

b)

c)

d) Figure 9. variants of Twin-Stir procedures ( a c ) and experimental head (d) in the displacement of the tool along the joint: a) parallel (TwinStir); b) Tandem (Tandem TwinStir); c) with displacement (Staggered Twin-Stir).

716

M.S. Shtrikman AlCuMg system. The results show that the effect of the electrostatic field reduces the size of the subgrains, the distribution of the grain becomes more uniform, the number of the dispersed precipitates of the second phase increases, the hardness of the metal is higher and more uniformly distributed in the cross-section of the welded joint. By separating the rotation drives of the working rod and the body of the tool with the probe it has become possible, without changing the speed of rotation of the pin, to reduce the frequency of rotation of the probe and, at the same time, reduce the thermal gradient between the central zone (around the working pin) and the peripheral zone (under the probe). This also reduces the risk of overheating and melting of the metal at the edge of the probe, softening of the metal in the HAZ and reduces the susceptibility to corrosion 13. In the early stage of development of the FSW process, it was reported in many investigations that one of the shortcomings of the process is the formation of a crater at the end of the welded joint after removal of the tool. This shortcoming greatly complicated the welding of closed (ring-shaped, circular) and other welded joints in the absence of allowances. To remove the tool from the welded joint without formation of a crater, it has been proposed to place a wedge 21 on the section of overlapping of the welded joint (or at the end of the weld away from it). The rotating tool continued to move along the wedge, and the working pin was displaced to the surface of the welded joint. However, this method increases the labour content of the process and cannot be used in some cases. Different drives of the axial displacement and rotation of the working pin and the body with the probe of the tool make it possible to replace the wedge and produce closed joints without the formation of a crater with gradual lifting of the working pin to the surface of the welded joint and movement of the rotating tool through the zone of overlapping of the initial section of the weld. In addition to this, a number of other problems has been solved: welding of a hole (continuous or discontinuous), including the crater or the hole remaining after removal of a defect; the possibility of welding with a single tool of components of different thickness and also with variable thickness of the pair of the welded edges; the possibility of producing the working pin and the body of the tool from different materials; a decrease of the labour requirement in production of the tool and increase of the service life. The separation of the drives of rotation and axial displacement of the pin and the body of the tool resulted in further improvement of the welding methods and, most importantly, the development of new repair technologies. The technology of repairing these defects is based in the majority of cases on the operation of welding up a hole remaining after removal of the defective area. The

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

like Re-Stir , requires further investigations. In welding by the Staggered Twin-Stir procedure with transverse displacement of two tools in relation to each other, the welded joint of the first tool is partially overlapped by the joint of the second tool (Figure 9 c ) so that it is possible to produce a lap welded zone with the thickness of up to 4.3 of the thickness of the upper welded sheet. The zone of overlapping of these joints is characterised by the additional failure of the residual oxides and by a refinement of the structure. The effect is achieved 16 in counter rotation of the tools in their front (in the direction of movement along the joint) part. The FSW process has been used as a basis at the TWI for the development of a method of producing components of different shape 13 close to the final shape, by growing the layers of sheet or powder material (ProStir technology) (Figure 10). Advantage of this method in comparison with the commercial method of production of these components by machining noted: relatively rapid and easily controlled process, requiring smaller areas for equipment and energy losses; relatively high speed of the process; three-dimensional welding procedure, small distortion; the possibility of achieving different properties in different sections by welding-on the appropriate material; the process in the solid phase is independent of gravitation and this makes it possible to weld large structures. It is also important to mention the methods with the introduction into the zone of welding the additional thermal energy, proposed for FSW of components with a large thickness of the welded edges or for welding materials with a higher temperature of transition to the plastic condition. The sources of additional heating in addition to Tandem TiwnStir 16 include the laser beam 16,17, high-frequency induction coils 18 and active resistance 19,20. When welding, it is possible to increase the welding speed and reduce the frequency of rotation of the tool reducing the probability of overheating and melting of the metal below the probe. In reference 12 investigations were carried out into the effect of an external electrostatic field on metallurgical processes in the welded joint in the FSW of alloys of the

50 m

Figure 10. Components of 5083 alloy, produced by the Pro-Stir procedure.

Welding International results of a large number of investigations confirmed the high strength of the spot welded joints in FSW both after welding 20,21,2328 and after repair 19,22,2931. In Reference 28, the typical defects of the welded joints in FSW include internal discontinuities, clusters of insufficiently dispersed oxides, formed in welding at high speed of plates with the non-machined surface, and lack of fusion defects in the root. Other defects also form. To prevent the formation of root defects (lack of fusion) between the weld edges (European patent 0.810.054) it is proposed to place a technological backing sheet with a groove below the joint line. In this case, the defective zone with the lack of fusion defect is displaced into the groove and subsequently removed by machining. However, the efficiency of the groove below the joint is associated with the presence of an anomalous thermal boundary above the groove and, consequently, more efficient heating of the weld root. Of considerable interest is the proposal (patent WO 02/05880) to use (instead of the working pin made of a hard material) a consumable bar produced from the material forming the joint. In friction heating of the rotating bar under axial pressure the plastic material of the bar is deposited on the heated surface of the groove (hole) and fills it. It has been proposed to carry out rivet welding by the same procedure (Patent WO 02/062518). Also, a rotating plug with the diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the whole is introduced into the orifice, followed by pressing, leading to the formation of a plug joint (Patent 2368309, Great Britain). It was mentioned previously that the increase of the thickness of the welded component is accompanied by the increase of the load on the tool required for strengthening. For this purpose, in References 3234 investigations were carried out using different materials for the working pin and the probe: for the pin tool steel H13, for the probe MP159 alloy (CoNiCr). This tool with the spiral threading on the working pin ensures high quality of the fillet joint in thick plates with the thickness of up to 40 mm made of 5083 and 2195 aluminium alloys in welding in these conditions: the speed of rotation of the tool is 225 rpm, welding speed 15.2 mm/min. A serious problem occurs in the welding of materials with higher (in comparison with aluminium alloys) thermomechanical characteristics, i.e. titanium alloys, steels and other materials. The main direction in the solution of this problem is the development of a tool capable of operation under high stresses and temperatures. In Reference 38 the results were published of tests on five materials for the tool probe: Inconel superalloy 718, Nimonic superalloy 105, engineering zirconium ceramics, hard alloy (94% WC +6% Co) and an intermetallic alloy based on nickel silicide (G-alloy, Ni 3(Si, Ti), Cr). The dependences of the width of the HAZ on the welding speed and the speed of rotation of the tool, and also on the load for every material used for the preparation of the probe, have been plotted. The results of analysis of these relationships have been used for making conclusions according to which the zirconium engineering ceramics

717

is superior to other materials: the calculated value of the heat input into the welded joint when using this material for the probe is 3040% higher, depending on the welding conditions. Consequently, the welding speed may be appropriately increased. It has also been shown that the zirconium coating on the surface of the probe below the joint also reduces the intensity of heat removal so that the welding speed can be additionally increased from 5 to 15 mm/s. In early publications 7,32 on the basis of the preliminary investigations it is claimed that FSW may be used in the production of structures of titanium alloys, steels and other high-strength materials. Reference 35 describes the successful application of FSW alloys based on Mg, Zn, Cu and Ti, and welding of low carbon steel. However, the specific results are not presented. Reference 36 described results of examination of the structure and mechanical properties of the FSW joints with preheating to 300C of HSLA-65 steel with the thickness of 6.4 and 12.7 mm for shipbuilding. Full strength joints were obtained, with fracture in testing through the parent material. The technology of FSW of steel and the tools are not described in this study. General Electric Company received a patent (Patent 2.402.905, Great Britain) for the welding of high-strength materials titanium and nickel alloys. The tool is produced from refractory tungsten with additions of rhenium, molybdenum, tantalum or niobium, forming hardening solid solutions with tungsten. The tool may also be produced from creep-resisting tungsten carbide made by sintering, sintering and pressing, and also by casting and pressing. Using the tool produced from a tungsten alloy by casting and pressing and containing approximately 4% rhenium and 0.5% hafnium carbide, high quality joints were produced in experimental specimens of titanium alloys in the dissimilar combination: Ti17+ Ti6Al4V. Tools were produced in which the working pin is made of molybdenum.37 In welding plates of aluminium alloys with the thickness of up to 40 mm using this tool, the quality of the welded joints was higher and there were no traces of wear of the tool. The Brigham Young University in co-operation with the company Advanced Metal Products have developed a new material 38 based on polycrystalline cubic nitride PCBN. The tool with the insert of PCBN in the form of the probe with the working rod (Figure 11) was tested in welding 316 L and 301 stainless steels, and also 600 alloy, and retained efficiency in heating up to 1200C. The higher durability of the tool was noted: the tool did not fail in welding a joint 15 mm long and in steel 316L with the thickness of 3.2 mm, durability was an order of magnitude longer in comparison with welding with the conventional steel tool. It is important to note publications on the investigations of special features and development of methods of FSW dissimilar materials. In reference 29 investigations were carried out into the effect of the welding speed, the position of the axis of the tool in relation to the joint line, its diameter and the direction of rotation on the formation and properties of

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

718

M.S. Shtrikman the information present in many of these patents is either not new or does not correspond to the efficiency criterion, or maybe insufficiently substantiated. These patents contaminate the information field and complicate search for useful information. It is necessary to agree with the assumption on the risk of flooding the industry with a large number of concepts of the tools. The number of articles and documents, containing the results of detailed investigations of scientific aspects of the FSW, such as the thermomechanical processes, relationships of plastic yielding, stepped deformation, formation of the structure of the zones of the welded joint, has increased. Attention is also given to the systems of automatic adaptive control of the parameters of the process and other theoretical and experimental investigations. The results of these investigations and the development of technological procedures and tools for different practical tasks create a suitable basis for the development and application of the FSW technologies in the production of components for important applications.
References
1 Thomas W.M., et al., Tool technology the heart of FSW, Connect, July/August 2000, http://www.twi.co.uk/connect/july00/c1073a. html. Thomas W.M., Friction stir welding and related friction process characteristics,7th Jnalco Conf., Cambridge, 1998, April. Smith I.J., Innovations in improvements of friction stir welding tools, Welding Metal Fabrication, 1995, June. Kalle S., et al., Industrialization of friction stir welding for application in aerospace structure, Structures and technologies prospect for future launchers, 3rd European Conference, Strasbourg, 2000, December. Thomas W.M., Dolby R.E., Friction stir welding developments , 6th International conference on Trends in welding research, Georgia (USA), 2002. April. Thomas W.M. et al., Friction Stir welding developments of tools , TMS Annual Assembly and exposition on joining of Aluminium, New Orleans (USA), 2001, February. Nicholas E.D., Kalle, Stephan W., Friction Stir Welding a decade on, W. Asian Pacific International Congress, Sydney, 2000, OctoberNovember. Colegrove P., Shercliff H., Threadgill P., Modelling and development of the Trivex Friction Stir Welding Tool, 4th International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Utah (USA), 2003, May. Cederqvist L., Reynolds A.P., Properties of Friction Stir Welded aluminium lap joints, 2nd International Symposium on FSW, Gothenburg (Sweden), 2000. June. Matsumoto Koichi, Sasobe S., Lap joints of aluminium alloys by Friction Stir Welding, 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001. Thomas W.M., Skew-Stir Technology, 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001, Sepetember. Fu L., Du S.G., Metallurgical characterization of a friction welded aluminum alloy subjected to an external electrostatic field, Welding Journal, 2004, No 8, 232236. Thomas W.M., et al., Friction Stir Welding Process developments for aluminium applications, Conference and exhibition "Aluminim in transport", Moscow (Russia), 2008. April. Reversal stir welding Re-StirTM-Preliminary trials, W.M. Thomas, D.C. Staines, E.D. Nicholas, P. Evans, 4th International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Utah (USA), 2003, May. Dual-rotation stir welding preliminary trials, E.R. Watts, D.C. Staines, W.M. Thomas, E.D. Nicholas, Published on the internet, 2004, April. The simultaneous use of two or more Friction Stir Welding tools, W.M. Thomas, D.C. Staines, E.R. Watts, J.M. Norris, Published on the internet, 2005, 13th January. Friction Stir welding technology preliminary studies of variant techniques part 1, W.M. Thomas, C.Wiesner, D.C. Staines, J.M. Norris, Welding and Cutting Journal, 2006, No. 6, 339344. Catin G.M.D., et al., Friction Skew stir welding of lap joints in 5083-0 aluminium, Science and technology of welding and joining,

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

Figure 11. A tool with an inset of polycrystalline cubic nitride PCBN with a protecting steel sleeve for absorbing lateral forces. 5 4 6

3 7 2
2 3 4

1
5

Fe

Al
6

Figure 12. Technological diagram of FSW of the aluminium alloy with steel; 1) the activated zone; 2) the direction of rotation; 3) the non-activated zone; 4, 6) the side of combination and difference of the vectors of the welding speed and the speed of rotation of the tool, respectively; 5) the welding direction; 7) the tool.

7 8 9

the welded joint in FSW of 5083 aluminium alloy with low carbon steel (tensile strength of 275 and 455 MPa, respectively). It has been shown that in the optimum position of the axis of the tool, the working pin should be merged into a less stronger material (aluminium) and slightly pushed (by 0.2 mm) into the stronger material (steel). The joint may be produced only with displacement of aluminium, heated to the plastic condition, to the activated zone (Figure 12). It was reported in reference 40 that in FSW of Al 1050 aluminium alloy with AZ31 magnesium alloy, one of the conditions of high-quality formation of the joint is also the matching of the direction of rotation of the tool in relation to the joint line with the direction of the welding speed. This condition is in agreement with the assumptions made in the patent (Patent number 00/000 66, Norway). In conclusion, it should be mentioned that of the more than 500 patents, registered in the last five years for the FSW process, a large part is concerned with the design of the tool. However, in addition to the interesting solutions,

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Welding International
2005, Vol. 10, No. 1. 19 Friction based welding technology for aluminim, W.M. Thomas, E.D. Nicholas, E.R. Watts, D.G. Staines, The 8 th international conference on Aluminium alloys, Cambridge, UK, 2002, July. 20 A preliminary investigation on the static properties of friction stir spot welds, C. Schilling, A. Strombeck, J.F. Santos, N. Heesen, 2nd International Symposium on FSW, Gothenburg (Sweden), 2000, June. 21 Addison A.C., Robelou A.J., Friction Stir Spot Welding principal parameters and their effects, 5th International Symposium on FSW, Metz, (France), 2004, September. 22 Spot Friction Welding for sheet aluminium joining, T.Y. Pan, A.Joaaynin, D.E. Wilkosz, et al., 5th International Symposium on FSW, Metz, (France), 2004, September. 23 Shepherd G.E., The potential for using solid phase welding to repair cracks that may occur on thin aluminium aircraft wing structure, 2nd International Symposium on FSW, Gothenburg (Sweden), 2000, June. 24 Fujimoto M., et al., Development of Spot Friction Stir Welding robot system for automobile body members , 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001, September. 25 Pan T.Y., Spot friction weld bond with adhesives for sheet aluminium joining, 6th International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Montreal (Canada), 2006, October. 26 Kyffin W.J., et al., Recent developments in Friction Stir Spot Welding for automotive steels, 6th International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Montreal (Canada), 2006, October. 27 Badarinarayan H., Process development and material property evolution of FS stitch welded sheet metal (Al), 6th International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Montreal (Canada), 2006, October. 28 Uematsu Y., Effect of welding conditions on tensile strength of dissimilar FS spot welds between different Al alloys, 6th International

719

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Downloaded by [National Institute of Technology - Warangal] at 04:05 03 October 2013

Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Montreal (Canada), 2006, October. Leonard A.J., Lackyer L.O., Flaws in Friction Stir welds, 4th International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Utah (USA), 2003, May. Johnson R., Threadgill P., Processing implications from evaluating repaired Friction Stir welds, 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001, September. Hartly P., Friction plug weld repair of space shuttle external tank, Welding and Metal Fabrication Journal, 2000, No. 9, 68. Dawes C.J., Thomas W.M., Development of improved tool designs for Friction Stir welding of aluminium, 1st International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, California (USA), 1999, June. Midling O.T., Effect of tool shoulder material on heat input during Friction Stir welding, 1st International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, California (USA), 1999, June. Colligan K., Taman K., Pickens J.R., FSW of thick section corner joints in aluminium alloys, 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001, September. Schuler V., FSW Possibilities and application, Proc. of the int. conf. on the joining of materials, JOM10, Helsingor Denmark, 2001, 238257. Konkol P., et al., Friction Stir welding of HSLA-65 steel for shipbuilding, 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001, September. Rowe C.E.D., Thomas W.M., Advances in tooling material for FSW, www.innovaltec.com/iom3_dt/rowe-matcong.pdf. Sorensen C.D., Nelson T.W., Tool material Testing for FSW of High-Temperature Alloys, 3rd International Symoposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe (Japan), 2001, September. Kimapong K., Watanabe T., Friction Stir welding of aluminium alloy to steel, Welding Journal, 2004, No. 10, 277282. Dissimilar FSW of Al alloy 1050 and Mg alloy AZ31, S.H.C. Park, et al., IWC Korea, 2002