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The current study investigates the mechanical and microstructure properties of 2024 aluminium alloy welded by protrusion friction stir spot welding as a novel method to produce keyholefree welds. Tool rotation speed and anvil protrusion height are used as effective variables of the process to obtain optimum conditions. Results illustrate that the keyhole-free welds with the joint show superior mechanical properties in protrusion friction stir spot welding compared to conventional friction stir spot welding. Failure mode changes from interfacial mode to circumferential mode by increasing the nugget zone depth and joint length, while the effect of nugget zone is considerable. Finally, welding at a rotation speed of 1600 rev min −1 and a protrusion height of 0.4 mm presents significant mechanical properties with more joint length.

This paper introduces a novel facile method, called projection friction stir spot welding, to produce a keyhole-free friction stir welds based on a pinless tool method involving using a specially designed projection on the surface of the backing anvil. The projection plays two key roles contributing to the bonding mechanism and the joint strength: (i) encouraging the material flow perpendicular to the joint interface and (ii) bending the joint interface at the edge of the projection. The process enables pathway to produce keyhole-free welds with superior mechanical performance in steel sheets compared to the other spot welding techniques.

In the present work, AA5052 sheets with thickness of 1 mm were successfully welded by protrusion friction stir spot welding as a low cost single-step method with a simple design that produces the no-keyhole joints with special mechanical properties at short dwell time and low tool rotation speed. By using suitable process parameters, the process is able to produce welds with superior mechanical performance in items of peak load and energy absorption compared to other techniques. The plunging depth and dwell time in this method were set as 0.2 mm and 6 s, respectively. The tool rotation speed was changed as 500, 800, 1250, and 1600 r/min to determine the optimum condition based on the microstructural and mechanical properties. Welds strength produced by the protrusion friction stir spot welding was directly related to the joint thickness, and the effective thickness of the upper sheet was maximum at 500 r/min. Protrusion friction stir spot welding joints presented circumferential failure mode after tensile shear testing. Regarding the sheets thickness used in this study, the joints produced by the current work presented high load bearing ability at dwell time of 6 s and tool rotation speed of 500 r/min compared to other techniques.