What is welding?
Welding is a process for joining two similar or dissimilar materials by fusion. Welding uses high temperature to join the materials, whereas soldering and brazing do not allow the base metal to melt. After cooling, the base metal and the filler metal get attached.
Also you can read How chemical elements effect on the steel properties?
Introduction of friction stir welding:
FSW was invented by Wayne Thomas at TWI(The Welding Institute) Ltd in UK, December 1991.
It overcomes many of the problems associated with conventional joining techniques. FSW is low energy input, capable of producing very high strength welds in wide ranges of materials at lower cost. FSW process takes place in the solid phase below the melting point of the materials to be joined.
It is primarily used on wrought or extruded aluminium and particularly for structures which need very high weld strength. FSW is capable of joining aluminium alloys, titanium alloys, mild steel, copper alloys, stainless steel and magnesium alloys. More recently, it was successfully used in welding of polymers.
Also read: How 20MnCr5 steel is different from 16MnCr5 steel?
Classification of welding:
Main two classifications are:
Fusion welding
Heated to molten state
No pressure required
Eg: Gas welding, Arc welding
Plastic welding
Heated to plastic state
Pressure required
Eg: friction welding(solid state welding), forge welding
Solid state welding:
This group of welding processes uses pressure and heat(below the melting temperature) to produce coalescence between the pieces to be joined without the use of filler metal.
Friction welding:
It is a solid state welding process, where in coalescence is produced by the heat obtained from mechanically induced sliding motion between rubbing surfaces.
Also read: What is corrosion or deterioration of metal.
Friction stirs welding process:
It is one of the new solid joining process. The FSW is performed with a rotating cylindrical tool which has profiled probe(also known as pin) having diameter smaller than the diameter of shoulder. During welding the tool is fed into a butt joint between two clamped workpieces, until the shoulder touches the surface of the workpieces.
The probe is slightly shorter than the weld depth required, with the tool shoulder riding atop the work surface. After a short dwell time, the tool is moved forward along the joint line at the preset welding speed. Friction heat is generated between the tool and the work pieces. This heat, along with that generated by the mechanical mixing process and the adiabatic heat within the material, cause the stirred materials to soften without melting. As the tool is moved forward, a special profile on the probe forces plasticised material from the leading face to the rear, where the high forces assist in a forged consolidation of the weld.
Also read: What is difference between EN24 and EN8 steel?
Important welding zones:
Friction stir weld in its cross-section consist of four main zones.
Also read: Why En-8 steel is suitable for various applications?
Microstructure analysis:
The micro-structure can be broken up into the following zones:
- the dynamically recrystallised zone (also known as stir zone) is a region of heavily deformed material that roughly corresponds to the location of the pin during welding. The grains within the stir zone are roughly equiaxed and often an order of magnitude smaller than the grains in the parent material. A unique feature of the stir zone is the common occurrence of several concentric rings, which has been referred to as an “onion-ring” structure. The precise origin of these rings has not been firmly established, although variations in particle number density, grain size and texture have all been suggested.
Also read: About the neodymium magnets and its advantages.
2. The flow arm zone is on the upper surface of the weld and consists of material that is dragged by the shoulder from the retreating side of the weld, around the rear of the tool, and deposited on the advancing side.
3. The thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) occurs on either side of the stir zone. In this region the strain and temperature are lower and the effect of welding on the micro-structure is correspondingly smaller.
4. The heat-affected zone (HAZ) is common to all welding processes. As indicated by the name, this region is subjected to a thermal cycle but is not deformed during welding.
Also read: Why magnets used in headphones?
Applications:
Ship building and offshore: Friction stir welding was used to prefabricate the aluminium panels of the Super Liner Ogasawara at Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding.
Aerospace: Longitudinal and circumferential friction stir welds are used for the Falcon 9 rocket booster tank at the SpaceX factory.
Railways: The high-strength low-distortion body of Hitachi A-train British Rail Class 395 is friction stir welded from longitudinal aluminium extrusions.
Automotive: Friction stir welding used in automotive sector for car assembling.
Also read: Self healing concrete.
Advantages:
(a) No consumables
(b) High superior weld strength
(c) Operate in all positions
(d) Low environment impact
Limitations:
(a) Work piece must be rigidly clamped (b) Slower traverse rate than fusion welding (c) Large down forces required with heavy-duty clamping necessary to hold the plates together.
Also visit:
- How normalizing different from annealing?
- You should know about India’s first private rocket launch: VIKRAM-S
- About Friction stir welding.
- How chemical elements effect on the steel properties?
- How 20MnCr5 steel is different from 16MnCr5 steel?
And visit for more article related to bio materials, electronic materials, advance materials, magnetic materials and metallurgical based.
“If you are looking for anthropology and its related issues must go through the below related link”
References:
Wikipidea.org/friction-stir-welding
Paul Kah, Richard Rajan, Jukka Martikainen & Raimo Suoranta, Investigation of weld defects in friction-stir welding and fusion welding of aluminium alloys. International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Article number: 26 (2015).
Friction stir welding and processing, Materials Science and Engineering. Sciencedirect.com
