TWI

Development work by TWI on behalf of the Swedish Nuclear Fuel & Waste Management Co. for the EB and friction stir welding of lids onto Cu radioactive waste disposal canisters (1050 mm diameter, 50 mm wall thickness) is reviewed. In 1986, when th…

Friction stir welding was evaluated as a cheaper alternative to the use of fasteners for the joining of lap joints of the aluminium alloy 7075-T351 motor thrust frame of the Ariane 5 rocket. In initial trials to optimise the tool design for lap join…

Friction stir welding (FSW) experiments were conducted on X52 and X60 pipeline steel specimens (outer diameter 324 mm, wall thickness 6.35 mm) and weldment integrity was evaluated by metallography, NDE and mechanical properties characterisation. Wel…

Two common approaches to describe kinematics in simulations of the friction stir welding (FSW) process, the Lagrangian representation and the Eulerian representation, were compared using "ABAQUS/Explicit" and "FLUENT" software programs, and the infl…

The details and methodology of an automatic path planning system for friction stir processing (FSP) of castings are presented, incorporating the means by which operator input is minimised, the limitations and challenges of the automatic programming …

Friction stir welding was used to produce a space shuttle external barrel section of 2195-T8 Al-Cu-Li alloy. Seven panels (joint thickness of 8.1 mm (0.32 in)) were joined to form a barrel 8.4 m (27.5 ft) in diameter and 4.6 m (15 ft) long. A comput…

A description is presented of the development of an aircraft adapter pallet system for the rapid deployment of supplies and equipment for use by the US Army. The pallets consisted of seven lightweight AA-6005A aluminium alloy (Al, 0.4-0.7%Mg, 0.5-0.…

Dissimilar joints between half-hard phosphorus deoxidised copper and annealed wrought AA 5083 alloys (Al, 4-4.9%Mg, 0.4-1%Mn) were fabricated by friction stir spot welding and the influence of process parameters on joint microstructure and mechanica…

An investigation is presented into the occurrence of a grey line in x-ray diffraction of friction stir welded joints of AA 2024-T62 aluminium alloys, and its influence on mechanical and fatigue properties. Welding in 2 mm sheet was performed using a…

The velocity field in the shear layer surrounding the tool/matrix interface in friction stir welding (FSW) was used to characterise material flow and was investigated by x-ray/computational tomography (CT) marker material experiments as well as anal…

Friction stir welding experiments were conducted on plate specimens (thickness 6 mm) of AA 2219 aluminium alloys (Al, 6.48%Cu, 0.32%Mn) and the crystallographic texture and deformation behaviour of the weld zones (HAZ, thermomechanically affected zo…

An experimental procedure based on a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical testing system was developed to investigate hot deformation parameters in the high temperature range for application to friction welding related processes. Experiments were conducted…

A review is presented of the application of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to numerical modelling of the friction stir welding (FSW) process, incorporating coupled physical phenomena such as heat generation, heat transfer and metal flow. Issues …

Aluminium alloy A6N01-T5 (Al, 0.63%Mg, 0.53%Si) hollow extrusions suitable for joining by friction stir welding, to be used in the generation of Japanese railway rolling stock, were designed, and the static and fatigue tensile strength of joints wer…

Various dissimilar butt joints were fabricated between 2017A-T451 (Al, 4.14%Cu, 0.72%Mg), 6082-T6 (Al, 1.03%Mg, 0.92%Si) and AlSi9Mg (Al, 8.6%Si, 0.31%Mg) aluminium alloys by friction stir welding using a high pin tool rotational speed (1400 or 1800…

The tool workpiece thermocouple (TWT) temperature measurement method was applied for optimisation of the initial welding phases (plunge and dwell) in conventional FSW (friction stir welding) and FSSW (friction stir spot welding), and an analysis of …

An experimental canister welding machine was developed in order to evaluate FSW as a method of welding the copper canisters used in the long term storage of nuclear waste. Preliminary trials involved the development of a machine with sufficient stif…