TWI

The viscosity of aluminium alloy 6061-T6 was determined to obtain data necessary for the modelling of friction stir welding. A friction stir welding tool with a 5 mm diameter pin was plunged into an alloy disc (tool speeds 900-1500 rev/min, plunge d…

The microstructure and postweld heat treatment of friction stir welds in age hardening aluminium alloys were investigated. Aluminium alloy plate (2014-T6 and 7075-T6 and -T651) of thickness 6.35 mm (0.25 in) was friction stir welded and the joints s…

The effects of friction stir welding process parameters (tool rotation speed and travel speed) on defects and mechanical properties in welds in aluminium alloys were investigated. Microstructural, macrostructural and mechanical properties of the wel…

Friction stir welds were made in Al-Li 2195 aluminium alloy plate, 2195 plate was welded to 2219 aluminium alloy forgings, and the welds were characterised by studies of mechanical properties, microstructure and NDE. Welds were made in plate of 8.1 …

A report is presented into the friction stir welding (FSW) fabrication of an aluminium deck for a pedestrian bridge over the Petite Decharge river (Alma, Quebec, Canada), incorporating the design and manufacturing of extrusions, FSW tools and a syst…

Ni3Al/Ni3V dual two-phase intermetallic alloys, incorporating Ta and Re additions, with enhanced high-temperature strength and hardness, were developed for friction stir welding tool applications and applied to fabricate butt welds in SUS 430 steel …

Use of friction stir welding (FSW) to replace mechanical fastening in fabrication of an aircraft component in the ROCT Project (Rib One with Crux and Tees) is described. Design is shown of the part, which was assembled using four butt welds from wro…

Dissimilar joints between 2017A-T451 (Al, 4.14%Cu, 0.72%Mg, 0.68%Si) and AlSi9Mg (Al, 8.6%Si, 0.64%Fe, 0.34%Mn, 0.31%Mg) aluminium alloys were fabricated by a friction stir welding process featuring different rates of rotation of the pin and shoulde…

With regard to the occurrence of coarse alpha-Al dendrites, eutectic phase, shrinkage porosity and other defects in cast aluminium alloys, an investigation was undertaken into the influence of different combinations of friction stir processing (FSP)…

The friction stir disc welding (FSDW) process was developed to facilitate the production of high quality root welds, and the joint formation mechanism and the influence of tool rotation direction on joint properties were investigated. The FSDW set-u…

Modified Gleeble hot torsion testing was used to simulate four microstructure regions in HSLA-65 steel (0.07%C, 0.24%Si, 1.5%Mn, 0.14%Cr, 0.34%Ni, 0.25%Cu, 0.06%Mo) joints fabricated by friction stir welding (FSW) and the results were verified by op…

The influence of tool and plate positions on the friction stir welding of F82H ferritic/martensitic steel (0.1%C, 8%Cr, 2%W, 0.2%V, 0.04%Ta) and austenitic stainless steels 304 and 316 was investigated. Stainless steel compositions were: 304 (0.08%C…

An approach to welded joint inspection incorporating in situ characterisation of weld quality was developed to facilitate the detection of discontinuities (e.g. voids and volume defects) during friction stir welding (FSW). FSW experiments were perfo…

A stationary shoulder friction stir welding (SSFSW) technique was developed for the joining of high temperature, low conductivity materials, and experimental results were obtained for butt and lap welds in Ti-6%Al-4%V alloys produced using 1D and 2D…

A review is presented of the growth in interest in friction stir welding (FSW) as measured by real industry applications and the distribution of related patent filings by time and geography, and case studies are reported to illustrate commonly occur…

Neural-fuzzy modelling techniques were employed to develop a transparent model-based approach that creates linguistic indices directly from spectral-temporal FSW (friction stir welding) data in order to analyse the relationship between process param…

A friction stir welding (FSW) process map for AA 7075-T6 aluminium alloy (Al, 5.1-6.1%Zn, 2.1-2.9%Mg, 1.2-2%Cu) was determined using combined NDT techniques such as visual inspection, dye penetrant testing, X-ray radiography and ultrasonic testing a…

2024-T3 aluminium alloy (Al, 4.4%Cu, 1.5%Mg) thin sheets (thickness 1 mm) were joined by friction stir welding (FSW), and the effect of process parameters (tool rotation speed and traverse rate) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the…

In relation to weight and cost saving on spaceflight pressure vessels, two friction stir lap welding methods were demonstrated on large-scale thin-gauge hardware and evaluated with respect to tooling and tooling cost reduction, lap joint stiffness a…

Curved overlap joints of a 7B04 aluminium alloy were fabricated using the "RoboStir" robotic friction stir welding system and their microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. The experimental set-up incorporated an ABB IRB7600 robot…