Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 423428 www.actamat-journals.

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The joint properties of dissimilar formed Al alloys by friction stir welding according to the xed location of materials
Won-Bae Lee a, Yun-Mo Yeon b, Seung-Boo Jung
a

a,*

Department of Advanced Materials Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, 300 Cheoncheon-dong, Jangan-gu, Suwon, Kyounggi-do 440746, South Korea b Department of Automated System, Suwon-Science College, 445-742 South Korea Received 13 January 2003; received in revised form 13 January 2003; accepted 21 May 2003

Abstract The mechanical properties of the weld mainly depended on the materials xed at the retreating side because the microstructure of the stir zone was mainly composed of the materials xed at the retreating side. The onion ring pattern was observed like lamellar structure stacked by each material in turn. 2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Friction stir welding (FSW); Aluminum alloy; Recrystallized microstructure; The retreating side

1. Introduction Since friction stir welding (FSW) was invented for the joining of Al alloys which are not easily joined with conventional fusion welding method, FSW has been applied to the joining of Al alloys, Mg alloys [1], Ti alloys [2] and Fe alloys [3] over the past 10 years. These materials were successfully joined and also showed higher mechanical properties. Recently, some trials have been made to join the dissimilar materials, for example 6061 Al alloy/ Cu [4], 2024 Al/6061 Al [5] and so on by FSW. Though sound joint cannot be easily achieved by FSW, the microstructures of dissimilar materials weld zone were systemically evaluated.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-31-290-7383; fax: +82-31290-7371. E-mail address: sbjung@skku.ac.kr (Seung-Boo Jung).

The joints between cast Al alloy and wrought Al alloy have high potential for expanding the usage of economical castings in airframe and missile application. Such a joint enables us to make more ecient design and also permit other low cost fabrication process to be employed. However, the dissimilar formed Al alloys are dicult to be joined with FSW due to their different deformation characteristics at high temperature [6]. In this study, the dissimilar formed cast A 356/ wrought 6061 Al alloy joint characteristics were evaluated with various welding speeds. The both side of the weld zone divided into the retreating side and the advancing side from the relation between the tool rotation direction and plate travel direction as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, we also evaluated the mechanical properties concerning the microstructure of the stir zone according to the xed location of materials.

1359-6462/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1359-6462(03)00301-4

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were sectioned in the longitudinal direction to the weld line with an electrical discharge machine (EDM). Microstructural changes from the weld zone to the unaected base metal were examined with optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Because each material showed the dierent etching response to the Keller etchant, the microstructure of the weld zone was easily distinguished 6061Al from A356 Al alloy.
Fig. 1. Schematic illustrating the friction stir welding process. Retreating side is anti-parallel relation between tool rotation direction and plate travel direction.

3. Results and discussion The dissimilar formed wrought 6061 Al and A356 Al alloys were successfully joined by the FSW and showed no porosity and defects in both weld top and rear surfaces regardless of the welding conditions. Fig. 2 illustrates the macro images of the weld zone with various welding conditions. From the dierent etching response of each material, 6061 Al alloys appeared darker colored than A356 Al alloys in the stir zone. In case A356 Al alloys were xed at the retreating side, more light colored regions that were estimated as that of A356 Al alloys occupied the large fraction in the stir zone. However, when 6061 Al alloys were xed at the retreating side, the microstructure of the stir zone was mainly composed of that of 6061 Al alloys. Therefore, the macrostructure of the stir zone mainly depended on the materials xed at the retreating side and some of the advancing sided material. The onion ring patterns were obviously observed in right part of the stir zone and characterized by the stacked structure of each material. The area of the stir zone showed almost the same according to the xed location of each material. However, the area of the stir zone slightly de-

2. Experimental procedure The materials used in this study were cast A356 Al alloy and wrought 6061 Al alloy which size is 140 mm in length, 70 mm in width and 4 mm in thickness. The chemical compositions are listed in Table 1. FSW has many welding parameters, such as tool (including shoulder and screw-like probe) materials, tool rotation speed, welding speed and the angle of the tool. In this study, only welding speed was considered and changed from 87 to 267 mm/min. Other parameters were xed at 1600 rpm of the tool rotation speed and 3 of the tool angle. The welding tool was rotated in the clockwise direction and specimens, which were tightly xed at the backing plate, were travelled. The Vickers hardness prole of the weld zone was measured on a cross-section and perpendicular to the welding direction using a Vickers indenter with a 100 gf load for 10 s. The tensile test was carried out at room temperature using an Instron-type testing machine with cross-head speed of 1.67 102 mm/s. To determine the tensile strength of the stir zone, tensile test specimens

Table 1 The chemical compositions of each material Si A356 6061 7.006 0.567 Fe 0.136 0.173 Cu 0.096 0.212 Mn 0.002 0.031 Mg 0.25 0.92 Cr 0.008 0.066 Zn 0.05 0.021 Ti 0.154 0.018 Al Bal. Bal.

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Fig. 2. The macro cross-section views of friction stir weld zone. (a) and (b) are 87 mm/min, (c) and (d) are 187 mm/min, (e) and (f) are 267 mm/min welding speed, respectively. Left gures are A356 xed at the retreating side and right gures are 6061 xed at the retreating side. (R) represents retreating side and (A) represents advancing side.

Fig. 3. Microstructures of A356 Al alloy (a) and 6061Al alloy (b).

creased as increasing welding speed due to the dierent the cooling rate. Fig. 3 shows the microstructures of the base metals. The dendrite microstructure of the A356 Al alloy (a) was composed of primary a phase and AlSi eutectic structure. The primary a phase occupied much more volume fraction than AlSi eutectic structure because A356 Al alloy included less Si contents than that of AlSi eutectic point composition. The 6061 Al alloy showed equiaxed structure and the average grain size was about 15 20 lm. There were many etch pits which may be site of the second precipitate particles. Fig. 4 shows the microstructures of the weld zone in case A356 Al alloy was xed at the retreating side. The advancing side of the stir zone (a) showed the ne and recrystallized grain structure of 6061 Al alloys. Its grain size was much smaller than that of the 6061 Al alloy base metal. Onion ring patterns (b) were continuously observed in the retreating side of the stir zone and randomly ob-

served in the advancing side of the stir zone. Onion ring patterns were composed of the lamellar like structure of stacked A356 Al and 6061 Al alloy in turn and shows the same width of 2025 lm, respectively. The upper region of the stir zone (c) had a slightly elongated and recrystallized 6061 Al alloys and thinly scattered Si particles. The exact central region (d) of the stir zone and other regions where the onion ring patterns was not observed showed the homogeneously dispersed Si particles comparing that of A356 base metal which the eutectic Si particles are partially distributed. Fig. 5 shows the microstructure of the weld zone when 6061 Al alloy was xed in the retreating side. The transition region of the advancing side (a) had a microstructure relate to A356 Al alloy and the dispersed Si particles aligned through the tool rotation direction. Lamellar-like onion ring patterns (b) were also observed in the stir zone. But the width of each layer showed some dierence compared to that of Fig. 4(b).

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Fig. 4. Microstructures of the stir zone in case A356 Al alloy was xed at the retreating side.

The width of 6061 Al alloys layer is wider than that of A356 Al alloy. The region marked (c) which was dominant structure of the stir zone showed ne and equiaxed grain structure of 6061 Al alloy and no scars of A 356 Al alloy. The center region of the stir zone showed macroscopically swirl and vortex-like patterns of each material, microscopically recrystallized 6061 Al alloys and thinly distributed Si particles. Fig. 6(a) shows the cross-sectional hardness prole near the weld zone according to the xed location of materials. Hardness of the stir zone was lower than that of 6061 Al alloy, but higher than that of A356 Al alloy. Some previous report explained that the softening of the stir zone in case of precipitate hardened Al alloy like 6061 Al alloys mainly due to the precipitates behavior during the welding thermal cycle [7,8]. The improved hardness of the stir zone in case of A 356 Al alloys was caused by homogeneously distributed Si particles [9]. The hardness of the stir zone showed higher value in case 6061 Al alloys were xed at the re-

treating side. This result can be explained by the dominant microstructure of the stir zone. Fig. 6(b) shows the longitudinal tensile strengths with each condition. The strengths of the stir zone of similar A356 FSW joint showed 185 MPa for ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and 87 MPa for yield strength (YS), which were higher strength than that of A356 Al alloy base metal. The strengths of weld zone, in case A356 Al alloy was xed at retreating side, showed 192 MPa for UTS and 105 MPa for YS. The higher strength of the weld zone was acquired when 6061 Al alloy is xed at the retreating side.

4. Conclusions 1. The microstructures of dissimilar formed A356/ 6061Al joint showed the mixed structures of two materials. The onion ring pattern, which appeared like lamellar structure, was observed in the stir zone.

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Fig. 5. Microstructures of the stir zone in case 6061 Al alloy was xed at the retreating side.

Fig. 6. Hardness prole of cross-section of weld zone (a) and longitudinal tensile strength (b) according to the xed location of materials.

2. The microstructure of the stir zone was mainly composed of the material xed at the retreating side. 3. The mechanical properties of the stir zone showed higher value when 6061 Al alloys were xed at the retreating side. This result relate to the complex microstructure of the stir zone.

References
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[3] Konkol PJ, Mathers JA, Pickens JP. The 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe, Japan, 2728 September 2001. [4] Murr LE, Li Y, Flores RD, Trillo EA, McClure JC. Mater Res Innov 1998;2:150. [5] Li Y, Murr LE, McClure JC. Mater Sci Eng A 1999;271:213. [6] Lederich RJ, Baumann JA, Oelgoetz PA. TMS Fall Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana, 48 November 2001, p. 71.