Elements Of Friction Stir Welding

In friction stir welding (FSW) a cylindrical, shouldered tool with a profiled probe is rotated and slowly plunged into the joint line between two pieces butted together. The parts have to be clamped onto a backing bar in a manner that prevents the abutting joint faces from being forced apart. Frictional heat is generated between the wear resistant welding tool and the material of the work pieces. This heat causes the latter to soften without reaching the melting point and allows traversing of the tool along the weld line. The maximum temperature reached is of the order of 0.8 of the melting temperature of the material.The plasticized material is transferred from the leading edge of the tool to the trailing edge of the tool probe and is forged

The two plates placed at perpendicular longitudinal directions have been successfully welded. the welded plates have been tested under tension at room temperature in order to analyse the mechanical response with respect to the parent materials. The resulted microstructure due to the FSW process has been studied by employing optical and scanning electron microscopy.In this study, the mechanical properties of welded joints of aluminium alloy obtained with friction stir welding (FSW) and conventional metal inert gas welding (MIG) were studied. FSW welds were carried out on a Friction stir welding machine. The performance of FSW and MIG welded joints were identified using tensile, metallographic and hardness tests. The joints obtained with FSW and MIG processes were also assessed for distortion that accompanied the welding processes. Taking into consideration the process conditions and requirements, FSW and MIG processes were also compared with each other to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the processes for welding applications of studied Al