scholarly journals The Influence of Pre- and Post-Heat Treatment on Mechanical Properties and Microstructures in Friction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Age-Hardenable Aluminum Alloys

Metals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Jia ◽  
Sicong Lin ◽  
Jizi Liu ◽  
Yonggui Qin ◽  
Kehong Wang

An Al-Mg-Si alloy 6061 and an Al-Zn-Mg alloy 7A52 were joined by friction stir welding successfully. Pre- and post- heat treatment were employed to improve the strength of the weld. The results show a best weld joint with the lowest hardness of 100 HV in 6061 matrix, being achieved by post-solid-solution and subsequent two-stage artificial aging for the whole weld joint of the 7A52 and 6061 solid solution. Under this condition, the weld nugget zone (WNZ) is stronger than 6061 matrix but it has lower hardness than 7A52 matrix. The hardness of WNZ is contributed by the combination of η′ and L precipitates, dynamically changes along with the ratios between the number of η′ and L precipitates. The higher the number density of η′ precipitates, the hardness of WNZ is closer to that of the 7A52 matrix. Otherwise, the higher number density of L precipitates, the hardness of WNZ is closer to that of 6061 matrix. The coexistence of η′ and L precipitates is a direct result from the mixture of 7A52 and 6061 alloys achieved by stirring. Precipitates identification and composition analysis reveal a dynamic WNZ with constituent transition in hardness and composition.

Author(s):  
Kulwant Singh ◽  
Gurbhinder Singh ◽  
Harmeet Singh

The weight reduction concept is most effective to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from vehicles, which also improves fuel efficiency. Amongst lightweight materials, magnesium alloys are attractive to the automotive sector as a structural material. Welding feasibility of magnesium alloys acts as an influential role in its usage for lightweight prospects. Friction stir welding (FSW) is an appropriate technique as compared to other welding techniques to join magnesium alloys. Field of friction stir welding is emerging in the current scenario. The friction stir welding technique has been selected to weld AZ91 magnesium alloys in the current research work. The microstructure and mechanical characteristics of the produced FSW butt joints have been investigated. Further, the influence of post welding heat treatment (at 260 °C for 1 h) on these properties has also been examined. Post welding heat treatment (PWHT) resulted in the improvement of the grain structure of weld zones which affected the mechanical performance of the joints. After heat treatment, the tensile strength and elongation of the joint increased by 12.6 % and 31.9 % respectively. It is proven that after PWHT, the microhardness of the stir zone reduced and a comparatively smoothened microhardness profile of the FSW joint obtained. No considerable variation in the location of the tensile fracture was witnessed after PWHT. The results show that the impact toughness of the weld joints further decreases after post welding heat treatment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Britto Joseph ◽  
T. N. Valarmathi ◽  
A. John Rajan ◽  
K. Pawana Sudeer Kumar ◽  
S. Prasath

Author(s):  
Lewis N. Payton ◽  
Vishnu Vardhan Chandrasekaran ◽  
Wesley S. Hunko

A dimensionless correlation is developed based on Buckingham’s Pi-Theorem to estimate the temperature fields generated by the movement of a tool during the Friction Stir Welding of an aluminum alloy (6061-T6). Symmetrical thermocouple measurements are taken during a statistically designed experiment using different factor levels (RPM, Traverse, etc). Analytical comparison (using multivariate ANOVA) validates the predicted dimensionless correlation including the often-reported difference between the advancing versus retreating side of the Friction Stir Tool.


2021 ◽  
Vol 880 ◽  
pp. 57-62
Author(s):  
Normariah Che Maideen ◽  
Salina Budin ◽  
Koay Mei Hyie ◽  
Nor Azirah Mohd Fohimi

Stirring tool is one of the important factor that contribute to the successful of Friction Stir Welding (FSW). Role of tool, is to heat the welding zone and stir the material along the process. Many studies have been conducted by other researchers to improve the performance of stirring tool. Similar to this work, it is aimed to investigate and analyze the effect of stirring tool surface condition on wear characteristics in friction stir welding process. Four tools have been fabricated with pre-determined surface condition. Tool 1: H13 without heat treatment and without coating. Tool 2: H13 with heat treatment only. Tool 3: H13 with TiCN coating only and Tool 4: H13 with heat treatment and with TiCN coating. Friction stir welding was performed to test and verify the performance of fabricated tools. Process parameter used are 1270 RPM for rotating speed while 218 mm/min for welding speed. From the result, Tool 4 performed better in terms of physical wear as well as wear rate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
A. Tamadon ◽  
D. J. Pons ◽  
K. Chakradhar ◽  
J. Kamboj ◽  
D. Clucas

Abstract A variety of tool shoulder designs comprising three families i.e. blade, spiral and circular shaped scrolls, were produced to improve the material flow and restrictions to avoid the tunnel void. The bobbin tools were manufactured by 3D printing additive manufacturing technology using solid filament. The butt weld joint was produced by each tool using plasticine as the workpiece material. The apparent surface features and bi-colour cross-sections provided a physical flow comparison among the shoulder designs. For the bobbin friction stir welding (BFSW), the tool shoulder with a three-spiral design produced the most stability with the best combination of the flow patterns on surface and cross-sections. The circular family tools showed a suitable intermixing on the surface pattern, while the blade scrolls showed better flow features within the cross-sections. The flow-driven effect of the shoulder features of the bobbin-tool design (inscribed grooves) was replicated by the 3D-printed tools and the analogue modelling of the weld samples. Similar flow patterns were achieved by dissimilar aluminium-copper weld, validating the accuracy of the analogue plasticine for the flow visualization of the bobbin friction stir welding.


2012 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 1139-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Boonchouytan ◽  
T. Ratanawilai ◽  
P. Muangjunburee

Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1607
Author(s):  
Amir Hossein Baghdadi ◽  
Zainuddin Sajuri ◽  
Mohd Zaidi Omar ◽  
Armin Rajabi

Friction stir welding (FSW) is an alternative method to join aluminum (Al) alloys in a solid-state condition. However, the coarsening or dissolution of precipitation hardening phases in the welding zone causes strength reduction or softening behavior in the welded area of age-hardened Al alloys. Therefore, this research aimed to improve the mechanical properties of an FSW Al–Mg–Si alloy via post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) and the possibility of controlling the abnormal grain growth (AGG) using different welding parameters. FSW was performed with different rotational and travel speeds, and T6 heat treatment was carried out on the FSW samples as the PWHT. The results showed a decrease in the strength of the FSW samples compared with that of the base material (BM) due to the dissolution of precipitation hardening particles in the heat-affected zone. However, the emergence of AGG in the microstructure after the T6-PWHT was identified as the potential event in the microstructure of the PWHT samples. It is found that the AGG of the microstructure in similar joints of Al6061(T6) was governed by the welding parameters. The results proved that PWHT was able to increase the tensile properties of the welded samples to values comparable to that of Al6061(T6)-BM. The increased mechanical properties of the FSW joints were attributed to a proper PWHT that resulted in a homogeneous distribution of the precipitation hardening phases in the welding zones.


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