FRICTIONAL STIR WELDING

SOLID STATE JOINING PROCESS

BAPATLA ENGINEERING COLLEGE

BAPATLA

Author:

Sudheer.ch
Mechanical Engineering
III/IV B.Tech
Email: sudheer_unicon@yahoo.co.in

Mobile: 9391673727

Hardware Requirement: Computer, a Data projector, a laser light.

Abstract: a new technology called friction stir
spot welding (FSSW) has been
developed that has several advantages
Friction Stir Welding (FSW),
over the electric resistance welding
a derivative of conventional friction
process widely used in automotive
welding, was invented at The Welding
industry in terms of weld quality and
Institute; U.K. has been shown to
process efficiency. FSW has been used
produce superior as-welded
on a wide range of materials, including
mechanical properties when compared
aluminum, copper, bronze, lead,
to typical arc welding processes in
magnesium, thermoplastic resin; and
aluminum alloys. As with other
even titanium and steel. FSW has
welding processes, it is used primarily
found its greatest application in
to achieve metallurgical joining of
aluminum. Even energy consumption
materials; however, secondarily this
drops nearly 99% for aluminum and
process also enhances properties of
80% for steel. Equipment costs also
materials. It uses the friction of the
drop by 40% as there's no longer a
rotating tool to heat, soften, and then to
need for large-scale sources of
stir together the materials to be joined.
electricity and specialized joining
Most of the other welding processes,
equipment.
such as gas metal arc welding, electron
beam welding, laser welding and
Key words: Non consumable
resistance welding achieve a weld by
electrode, solid state joining process,
applying direct thermal energy to the
materials causing the materials to melt
Introduction:
and fuse which may cause distortion
due to thermal stress. FSW achieves
Friction Stir Welding is a solid state
results and over come the problems,
joining process, in which a cylindrical
using mechanical energy rather than
shouldered tool with a profiled pin is
direct thermal energy. The main
inserted into the joint line between two
advantages which made FSW to adapt
pieces of material. Frictional heat is
is lower energy input results in low
created between the wear resistant pin
distortion, it can work on sheet
and the two work pieces, which are
materials, tubes, extrusions, or
butted together and clamped onto a
complex castings or forgings. Recently,
backing bar.
The heat causes the materials to soften, joint. Friction stir welds have been
without reaching melting point, and fabricated in a variety of aluminum
allows the pin to traverse along the alloys up to 50 mm thick, titanium
joint. As the tool moves along, the alloys and steels up to 25 mm thick.
material is plasticized by the frictional The welds can be made in any position
heat at the front of the rotating pin and at welding speeds of a few inches per
transported to the back. Here it minute.
consolidates and cools down to form a
In friction stir welding, the plates to be
solid state weld. The tool has a circular
joined are placed on a rigid backing
section except at the end where there is
plate, and clamped in a manner that
a threaded probe or more complicated
prevents the abutting joint faces from
flute; the junction between the
being forced apart. A cylindrical-
cylindrical portion and the probe is
shouldered tool, with a specially
known as the shoulder. The probe
profiled projecting pin with a screw
penetrates the work piece whereas the
thread, is rotated and slowly plunged
shoulder rubs with the top surface. The
into the joint line. The pin length is
heat is generated primarily by friction
similar to the required weld depth. The
between a rotating--translating tool, the
shoulder of the tool is forced against
shoulder of which rubs against the
the plates. When the rotating pin
work piece. There is a volumetric
contacts the work piece, it causes
contribution to heat generation from
friction heating of the plates which
the adiabatic heating due to
lowers their mechanical strength. The
deformation near the pin. The welding
threads on the pin assist in ensuring
parameters have to be adjusted so that
that the plastically deformed material
the ratio of frictional to volumetric
flows around the pin as the tool
deformation--induced heating
advances along the joint line. As the
decreases as the work piece becomes
tool proceeds along the joint line, it
thicker. This is in order to ensure a
causes friction heating just head of it to
sufficient heat input per unit length.
a plastic state. It subsequently
The technique uses a non-consumable
pulverizes the joint line and stirs and
tool to generate frictional heating at the
recombines the plasticized material to
point of welding and to induce gross
the trailing side of the tool where the
plastic deformation of the work piece,
material cools to form a solid state
resulting in complex mixing across the
weld. At the end of the weld, the tool is parts, which are placed on top of each
retracted from the plate and leaves a other as illustrated
hole at the end of the weld.
Circumferential welds have been made
in aluminum alloys by withdrawing the
tools slowly after a complete rotation.

The FSSW process consists of three

Recently, Friction Stir Spot Welding
phases; plunging, stirring, and
(FSSW) has been developed that has a
retraction as shown in figure. The
several advantages over the electric
process starts with spinning the tool
resistance welding process widely used
and slowly plunging it into a weld spot
in automotive industry in terms of
until the shoulder contacts the top
weld quality and process efficiency.
surface of work piece during plunging
This welding technology involves a
require amount of pressure is applied
process similar to FSW, except that,
by the tool on the work such that it
instead of moving the tool along the
penetrates into the work to be weld.
weld seam, the tool only indents the
The penetrating pressure depends on
material properties. Then, the stirring
phase enable the materials of two work
pieces mix together. The time for
stirring mainly depends on the density
of the work material and its thermal
properties. Lastly, once
predetermined penetration is reached,
the process stops and the tool retract
from the work piece. The resulting
weld has a characteristic hole in the
middle.
Microstructure Classification of
Friction Stir Welds:
A schematic diagram is shown in the
below Figure which clearly identifies
the various regions. The process not
only generates a heat-affected zone
(HAZ), but within this HAZ near the
weld nugget a thermo-mechanically
affected zone (TMAZ) is
produced. TMAZ is a result of the
severe plastic deformation and the
temperature rise in the plate from the
friction heating. The friction stir weld
appears broad at the top surface with a
smaller well-defined weld nugget in
the interior. The weld
corresponds to the tool probe that
penetrates through the plate thickness,
whereas the broader surface
deformation and subsequent
recrystallization are associated with the
rotating tool shoulder.
a
The system divides the weld zone into
distinct regions as follows:
A. Unaffected material
B. Heat affected zone (HAZ)
C. Thermo-mechanically affected
zone (TMAZ)
D. Weld nugget (Part of thermo-
mechanically affected zone)
Unaffected material or parent metal:
This is material remote from the weld,
which has not been deformed, and
which although it may have
experienced a thermal cycle from the
weld is not affected by the heat in
also
terms of microstructure or mechanical
properties.
Heat affected zone (HAZ): In this
region, which clearly will lie closer to
the weld centre, the material has
experienced a thermal cycle which has
nugget modified the microstructure and/or the
mechanical properties. However, there
is no plastic deformation occurring in
this area. In the previous system, this
was referred to as the "thermally
affected zone". The term heat affected
zone is now preferred, as this is a
direct parallel with the heat affected
zone in other thermal processes, and
there is little justification for a separate
name.
Thermo-mechanically affected zone
(TMAZ): In this region, the material
has been plastically deformed by the
friction stir welding tool, and the heat
from the process will also have exerted
some influence on the material. In the
case of aluminium, it is possible to get
significant plastic strain without
recrystallisation in this region, and
there is generally a distinct boundary
between the recrystallised zone and the
deformed zones of the TMAZ.
Aluminium behaves in a different
manner to most other materials, in that
it can be extensively deformed at high
temperature without recrystallisation.
In other materials, the distinct
recrystallised region (the nugget) is
absent, and the whole of the TMAZ
appears to be recrystallised. This is
certainly true of materials which have
no thermally induced phase
transformation which will in itself
induce recrystallisation without strain,
for example pure titanium, b titanium
alloys, austenitic stainless steels and
copper. In materials such as ferrite
steels and a-b titanium alloys
understanding the microstructure is
made more difficult by the thermally
induced phase transformation, and this
can also make the HAZ/TMAZ
boundary difficult to identify precisely.
Weld Nugget: The recrystallised area
in the TMAZ in aluminium alloys has
traditionally been called the nugget.
Although this term is descriptive, it is
not very scientific. However, its use
has become widespread, and as there is
no word which is equally simple with
greater scientific merit, this term has
been adopted. It has been suggested
that the area immediately below the
tool shoulder (which is clearly part of
the TMAZ) should be given a separate
category, as the grain structure is often
different here. The microstructure here
is determined by rubbing by the rear
face of the shoulder, and the material
may have cooled below its maximum.
It is suggested that this area is treated
as a separate sub-zone of the TMAZ.
The simultaneous use of two or more
friction stirs as welding tools:
 TM
The concept involved a pair of tools The Twin-stir parallel contra-
applied on opposite sides of the work rotating variant enables defects
piece slightly displaced in the direction associated with lap welding to be
of travel. The contra-rotating positioned on the 'inside' between the
simultaneous double-sided operation two welds. For low dynamic volume to
with combined weld passes has certain static volume ratio probes using
advantages such as a reduction in conventional rotary motion, the most
reactive torque and a more significant defect will be 'plate
symmetrical weld and heat input thinning' on the retreating side. With
through-the-thickness. The probes need tool designs and motions designed to
not touch together but should be minimize plate thinning, hooks may be
positioned sufficiently close that the the most significant defect type. The
softened 'third-body' material around Twin-stir method may allow a
the two probes overlaps near the probe reduction in welding time for parallel
tips to generate a full through- overlap welding. Owing to the
thickness weld. To avoid any problems additional heat available, increased
associated with a zero velocity zone in travel speed or lower rotation process
mid-thickness, the probes can be parameters will be possible.
displaced slightly along the direction
of travel. Common to all such Tandem twin-stir:
simultaneous contra-rotating
techniques is a reduction in the
reactive forces on the work holding
fixtures owing to the reduction or
elimination of reactive torque.
Moreover, for certain applications, the
The Twin-stir tandem contra-rotating
use of purpose designed multi-headed
variant can be applied to all
friction stir welding machines can
conventional FSW joints and will
increase productivity, reduce side force
reduce reactive torque. More
asymmetry, and reduce or minimize
importantly, the tandem technique will
reactive torque.
help improve the weld integrity by

Parallel twin-stir: disruption and fragmentation of any

residual oxide layer remaining within
the first weld region by the following
tool. Welds have already been
produced by conventional rotary FSW,
whereby a second weld is made over a
previous weld in the reverse direction
with no mechanical property loss. The
preliminary evidence suggests that
further break-up and dispersal of
oxides is achieved within the weld
region. The Twin-stir tandem variant
will provide a similar effect during the
welding operation. Furthermore,
because the tool orientation means that
one tool follows the other, the second
tool travels through already softened
material. This means that the second
tool need not be as robust. It is noted
that under certain circumstances these
tools need not always be used in the
contra-rotation mode and their
rotational speed can also be varied.
Staggered twin-stir:
The staggered Twin-stir means that an
exceptionally wide 'common weld
region' can be created. Essentially, the
tools are positioned with one in front
and slightly to the side of the other so
that the second probe partially overlaps
the previous weld region. This
arrangement will be especially useful
for lap welds, as the wide weld region
produced will provide greater strength
than a single pass weld, given that the
detail at the extremes of the weld
region are similar. Residual oxides
within the overlapping region of the
two welds will be further fragmented,
broken up and dispersed. One
particularly important advantage of the
staggered variant is that the second tool
can be set to overlap the previous weld
region and eliminate any plate thinning
that may have occurred in the first
weld. This will be achieved by locating
the retreating side of both welds on the
'inside'.
Friction Stir Welding - Joint
geometries
The process has been used for the
manufacture of butt welds, overlap
welds, T-sections and corner welds.
For each of these joint geometries
specific tool designs are required
which are being further developed and
optimized. The FSW process can also
cope with circumferential, annular,
non-linear, and three dimensional
welds. Since gravity has no influence
on the solid-phase welding process, it
can be used in all positions. It can be
used to eliminate porosity and other
defects from castings with minimal
property changes. FSW does not take
the materials to the melting point, only
to sufficiently plastic condition to pressure-sintered silicon nitride
enable appropriate stirring. (Kyocera SN282).

Tool requirements:

Because the peak temperatures Thermal

Material Strength
experienced during friction stir conductivity
W/m-K Fracture
welding are lower than those of fusion W/m-K
MPa toughness
welding processes distortion may be MPa
6061+20%
reduced and micro structural changes 130 359
Al2O3
associated with the welding thermal H13 steel 20 2000
cycle are minimized. Characteristics WC-
100 2100
such as these make friction stir 10%Co
Si3N4 35 800
welding an attractive process for
welding a variety of high temperature
alloys and metal matrix composites.
For these alloys, however, the Advantages:
selection of materials for the rotating
The only energy consumed with
nonconsumable tooling is crucial to
friction stir welding is the electricity
successful deployment. Properties that
needed to rotate and apply force to the
are likely to be important for tool
welding tool. The process eliminates
materials include strength, fatigue
the need for the large current and
resistance, wear resistance, thermal
coolant/compressed air that
conductivity, toughness, and chemical
conventional resistance welding
stability. High strength relative to base
requires. Energy consumption drops
materials is an absolute necessity for
nearly 99% for aluminum and 80% for
tools.
steel. Equipment costs also drop by
To with stand these adverse conditions
40% as there's no longer a need for
the best option is ceramics and
large-scale sources of electricity and
Cermets of tungsten carbide bonded
specialized joining equipment. The
with 10 wt% Co, WC10Co, and a gas-
process also produces no weld spatter,
which makes for a cleaner and safer
assembly line. High strength greater tolerance than all other welding
aluminium alloy (2024) is used for techniques for butt weld gaps, poor
aircraft applications due to its high sheet edge conditions, lubricants,
strength to weight ratio. Currently, the oxides, and other contaminants.
major joining process employed is
riveting. Friction stir welding (FSW) is FSW does not require ventilation and it
a new solid state joining technique requires much lower energy inputs. It
which offers substantial improvements is used to both seam weld and to spot
over riveting in terms of weight saving weld. Lower energy input results in
and mechanical integrity. low distortion seam weld types
including butt weld, lap weld, or
Even high strength materials like
penetration weld. It can work on sheet
Austenitic stainless steels which can
materials, tubes, extrusions, or
easily be welded using conventional
complex castings or forgings. It can be
arc welding and other processes.
used to eliminate porosity and other
However, FSW can offer lower
defects from castings with minimal
distortion, lower shrinkage and
property changes.
porosity as the maximum temperature
reached is of the order of 0.8 of the FSW covers a wide range of materials
melting temperature. More important is which can be successfully welded
the avoidance of fumes containing include Copper and its alloys (up to
hexavalent chromium which is 50mm in one pass)Lead, Titanium and
carcinogenic. In addition, chemical its alloys, Magnesium alloys, Zinc
segregation effects associated with Plastics, Mild steel, Stainless steel
welding processes involving (austenitic, martensitic),Nickel alloys.
solidification are avoided.
• Diverse materials: Welds a
FSW has unique ability to retain near-
wide range of alloys, including
parent metal properties across the
previously unweldable and
weld, especially strength and ductility.
composite materials.
Because it does not melt the material,
• Durable joints: Provides twice
there is minimal property change due
the fatigue resistance of fusion
to a heat-affected zone, and
welds and no keyholes.
contaminant inclusions are minimized
versus other welding techniques. It has
 • Retention of
properties: Minimizes material
distortion.
• Safe operation: Does not create
hazards such as welding fumes,
radiation, high voltage, liquid
metals or arcing.
material and successfully used. The process
could also be used to increase the size
of commercially available sheets by
welding them before forming. The
friction stir welding process can
therefore be considered for:
Railway industry

FSW – Applications: The commercial production of high

speed trains made from aluminium
Shipbuilding and marine industries
extrusions which may be joined by
The shipbuilding and marine industries
friction stir welding has been
are two of the first industry sectors
published. Applications include:
which have adopted the process for
commercial applications. The process Land transportation
is suitable for the following
applications: The friction stir welding process is
currently being used commercially, and
Aerospace industry is also being assessed by several
automotive companies and suppliers to
At present the aerospace industry is
this industrial sector for its commercial
welding prototype and production parts
application. Existing and potential
by friction stir welding. Opportunities
applications include:
exist to weld skins to spars, ribs, and
stringers for use in military and Limitations:
civilian aircraft. In which a high
However, FSW produces a
proportion of the rivets are replaced by
heterogeneous microstructure in the
friction stir welding, has made many
weld zone, causing corrosion
certification flights. This offers
problems. The variation of
significant advantages compared to
microstructure is caused by the
riveting and machining from solid,
different frictional heat input
such as reduced manufacturing costs
determined by welding parameters,
and weight savings. Longitudinal butt
especially travel and spindle speeds.
welds in Al alloy fuel tanks for space
Steel can be friction stir welded but the
vehicles have been friction stir welded
essential problem is that tool materials
wear rapidly. Indeed, the wear debris • www.twi.co.uk
from the tool can frequently be found • www.msm.cam.ac.uk
inside the weld.
• Modern welding techniques by
FSW uses forces, which are
significantly higher relative to arc
welding. Therefore, the design of the
joint and the fixture, as well as the
rigidity of the equipment required, are
factors to be considered.

However, the main limitations of the

FSW process are at present:

• Work pieces must be rigidly

clamped due to high forces
involve in welding
• Backing bar required (except
where self-reacting tool or
directly opposed tools are used)
• Keyhole at the end of each
weld
• Cannot make joints which
required metal deposition (e.g.
fillet welds)

Conclusion:

FSW mechanical properties were

found to have greater strength and
twice the ductility when compared to
conventional GMAW properties.

Reference: