TWI Digital Library

An ultrasound assisted friction stir welding (UA-FSW) technique was employed to fabricate butt joints in similar Al/Al and dissimilar Al/Mg sheets, and the influence of ultrasonic oscillations on weld zone microstructure and mechanical properties wa…

Dissimilar welded joints between AW 6061-T6 aluminium alloy (Al, 0.93%Mg, 0.59%Si, 0.5%Fe) and AZ31B-H24 magnesium alloy (Mg, 2.55%Al, 0.79%Zn) were fabricated by friction stir welding and the influence of process parameters on their microstructure …

An experimental study was carried out to characterise the types of defect which may occur in friction stir welding (FSW) when operating outside the standard processing window and to determine the causes of these defects. Friction stir welds were mad…

Results are presented from tests carried out to determine the mechanical and corrosion properties of friction stir welds in sheets of thickness 4 mm of two aerospace aluminium alloys AA-6056 and AA-6013. The specimens included alloys in the T6 condi…

The Welding of Airframes by Friction Stir (WAFS) project was implemented to increase the adoption of friction stir welding (FSW) for welding airframes in the aerospace industry. The partners in WAFS include all the main airframe manufacturers in Eur…

The use of friction stir welding in aircraft manufacture, particularly the Airbus, both as an alternative to riveting and for the production of tailored blanks, is discussed. Potential benefits include cost and weight reduction. The European aircraf…

Friction stir welding developments, equipment, and applications for the joining of aluminium alloys, particularly for automotive applications, are reviewed. Body in white automotive applications include aluminium alloy tailor welded blanks and the m…

Stress corrosion cracking in friction stir welded aluminium alloy joints was investigated using two alternative techniques. Aluminium alloy 7050-T7541 (Al, 5.7-6.7%Zn, 2.0-2.6%Cu, 1.9-2.6%Mg, 0.15%Fe, 0.12%Si) plate of 6.35 mm (0.25 in) thickness wa…

An abrasion circle friction stir spot welding (ABC-FSSW) technique was employed to fabricate dissimilar metal joints between aluminium and steel automotive sheets, and the microstructure, mechanical properties and weld formation mechanisms of the jo…

With regard to inconsistencies in the literature concerning the correlation between friction stir welding (FSW) process inputs and post weld process or material response, an investigation is presented into the primary variables (temperature, cooling…

A friction stir processing (FSP) technique was employed to fabricate D2 steel hunting knife blades with long-life cutting edge retention, and blade integrity tests were undertaken. The FSP tool design was a convex scroll shoulder step spiral and the…

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a relatively new technique which utilizes frictional heating combined with a forging pressure to produce virtually defect-free high strength bonds. Although considerable experimental work has been reported in the liter…

Friction stir lap diffusion welding was employed to fabricate dissimilar AA 6060 aluminium alloy/mild steel joints and mechanical testing and metallurgical examination of the weldments were undertaken to investigate the effect of microstructure form…

Similar overlap and dissimilar butt joints were fabricated by friction stir spot joining of AA 6061-T6 (Al, 1-1.1%Mg, 0.66-0.67%Si) and AA 5052-H34 (Al, 2.58%Mg) sheets of thickness 1 and 2 mm, respectively, and microstructural analysis was used to …

An finite element method (FEM) model, considering variables such as tensioning level, heat input and sheet geometry but ignoring mechanical tool effects, was developed to investigate the efficacy of the mechanical tensioning technique for controllin…

A 3D computational fluid dynamics model was developed to conduct numerical simulations of heat generation, material flow and temperature profiles during reverse dual-rotation friction stir welding, a process variant in which the tool pin and the ass…

SiC particle reinforced 2124Al metal matrix composite (MMC) plates (thickness 8 mm) were joined by friction stir welding (FSW) and the relationship between process parameters, weld defect formation and joint mechanical properties was investigated. T…

The microstructures and strengthening mechanisms during friction stir processing (FSP) of AZ91 (Mg, 9%Al, 1%Zn) die-cast and Mg-Y-Zn (Mg, 5.9%Y, 2.6%Zn and Mg, 5.5%Y, 4.3%Zn) cast alloys were investigated and the effect of second phase particle disp…

Numerical simulation of the friction stir welding (FSW) process was undertaken by means of an arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation and a fully coupled thermomechanical analysis was performed to account for the heat flux generated by plast…

The effects of friction stir welding (FSW) tool geometry on material flow during the welding of 4 mm aluminium alloys 2024-T51 and 6056-T4 were investigated. Welds were made using three different welding tool pins (conical non-threaded profile, coni…