Experimental Study on Manufacturing of Tailor Friction Stir Welded Aluminium Blanks

Abstract

Today, in sheet metal forming processes, a new concept of fabricating consolidated sheets or in other words Tailor Welded Blanks emerged. Friction Stir Welding is one method for manufacturing TWBs and has numerous advantages over fusion welding methods for joining aluminum sheets. In the present study, TWBs made by friction stir welding of 6061-T6 and 5754-O aluminum alloys were studied. The effects of different tool rotational speeds and welding speeds on the mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of dissimilar joints were evaluated. The results showed that in an appropriate range of speeds combinations, an optimum rotational speed exists at which maximum strength is achieved. Regarding welding speed, greater strength is attained at higher speeds. The microstructural analysis confirms that an increase in welding speed will result in grain size reduction and consequently higher tensile strength. It is observed that above the optimum rotational speed, the grain size of the nugget zone increases which results in decreasing tensile strength. With regard to elongation, it is found that despite the grain growth of the nugget zone at a higher ratio of tool rotational speed to welding speed, the elongation improved due to the dominant material existing in the weld zone. Positioning Al 6061 on the advancing side of the dissimilar joints leads to improved mechanical properties compared with positioning on the retreating side. It is notable that the degree of such improvement in ductility is much more remarkable than strength, which is valuable regarding formability concerns.

Keywords

• dissimilar friction stir welding
• rotational speed
• tailor welded blank
• welding speed