Friction Stir Welding with Lloyd’s Register

Modelling of electrically enhanced friction stir welding process using finite element method

“…Since friction stir welding (FSW) was invented by The Welding Institute (TWI) in 1991, 1 it has attracted considerable interest and is being used in various industries like aerospace, automotive and military, especially for welding aluminium alloys. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] The basic procedure of friction stir welding is as follows: a rotating tool pin is plunged into the joint of two workpieces butted against each other until the tool shoulder contacts the top surface of the workpiece (it may be noted that FSW has been used for fabricating other types of joints such as lap joints, in addition to butt joints). Heating is caused by rubbing of the tool faces against the workpiece and by plastic work dissipation at high strain rates developed through tool pin stirring of the materials.…”

“…As a solid state welding process, FSW has many advantages, such as low cost, low distortion and residual stress, high reliability and high strength and ductility for aluminium joints, compared with conventional fusion welding. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] In recent years, FSW of aluminium alloys and other low melting point metals has been relatively well established. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] FSW is also under development for higher temperature and harder to weld materials such as steels, stainless steels, titanium alloys and some metalmatrix composites (MMC).…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] In recent years, FSW of aluminium alloys and other low melting point metals has been relatively well established. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] FSW is also under development for higher temperature and harder to weld materials such as steels, stainless steels, titanium alloys and some metalmatrix composites (MMC). [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] As a result of the higher yield strength and higher softening temperature of these materials, however, serious tool wear, low welding speed and tool pin breakage are the main problems faced when applying FSW on these harder materials.…”