Surface Smoothing of A5083 Aluminum Alloy Plate by Friction Stir Forming

Abstract

This paper provides a framework for the transcription of the surface of a mirror-finished die onto a metal plate by friction stir forming (FSF). In FSF, a material is put on a die, then friction stirring was conducted on its back surface for the transcription of the profile of the die onto the material. In this paper, a mirror-polished die of JIS SUS304 stainless steel with surface roughness Sz 0.014 mm and a probe-less friction-stirring tool in 18 mm shoulder diameter were employed for the experiment. A5083P-O aluminum plates, 3 mm thick, were utilized as base metals for the transcription. The authors varied tool spindle speed and tool feed rate to evaluate the forming results. Consequently, a mirror-finished surface under the friction-stirring tool was successfully transferred from the die to the aluminum alloy plate. The roughness of the base metal before processing was Sz 0.022 mm and that of the processed metal was Sz 0.012–0.016 mm. Higher spindle speed and faster feed rate resulted in a smoother surface; it is thought that high spindle speed and faster feed rate should be effective for higher contact pressure between a die and a material.