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Cladding of copper sheet on mild steel using friction stir welding

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Abstract

Common welding processes that are used for cladding causes dilution and therefore, there is a need to explore new processes of cladding. In this work, friction stir welding process has been used to successfully clad 3 mm thick copper sheet on a 6 mm thick mild steel substrate. The process is different from lap welding, not only because of its intended purpose, but also because several FSW passes are needed to cover the entire surface of the substrate. After one FSW pass, successive passes were carried out to cover a wider width of the clad layer by offsetting the tool. Metallurgical examination of the transverse cross-section of cladded samples was carried out using optical microscopy, SEM–EDS, microhardness test, and XRD. Surface jetting type features, normally seen in explosive welding, were observed at the interface of the two materials. The average grain size of steel substrate below the clad layer for both single and triple passes showed refined grains with size of 3.9 µm and 4.2 µm respectively indicating an improvement of more than 60% over the base steel. Although there was plastic flow of material, the substrate material could not make to the top surface of the clad layer. XRD analysis confirmed no new phases were observed on the top surface of the clad layer after cladding. However, the interface region on the transverse cross-section confirmed the presence of Cu0.8Fe0.2 and Cu0.3Fe1.7 intermetallics. Microhardness for copper clad region remained nearly same across all the passes. However, for the steel substrate, higher hardness values were found near the stir zone due to grain refinement for single pass clad while for double and triple passes, a slight reduction was recorded possibly due to metal transfer across the boundary upon second and third passes.

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Funding

Received from SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (Sanction no. SERB No: SB/S3/MMER/0062/2013, dated 23rd April 2014) and IIT (BHU) under sprouting grant (letter No IIT (BHU)/Dev./2013–14/5110/L dated/3/2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, 221005, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Mithlesh Kumar Mahto, Adarsh Kumar, Avinash Ravi Raja, Meghanshu Vashista & Mohd Zaheer Khan Yusufzai

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  1. Mithlesh Kumar Mahto
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  2. Adarsh Kumar
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  3. Avinash Ravi Raja
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  4. Meghanshu Vashista
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  5. Mohd Zaheer Khan Yusufzai
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Contributions

Mithlesh Kumar Mahto: experimentation, methodology, writing–original draft. Adarsh Kumar: visualization, conceptualization. Avinash Ravi Raja: visualization, conceptualization. Meghanshu Vashista: writing–review and editing, supervision. Mohd Zaheer Khan Yusufzai: writing–review and editing, supervision.

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Correspondence to Mohd Zaheer Khan Yusufzai.

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Highlights

• New method of cladding has been attempted using friction stir welding process.

• Defect free cladded samples could be obtained at the process parameters and the extent of overlap of FSW passes.

• Multi pass cladding of 3 mm copper on 6 mm thick mild steel substrate carried out.

• Interlocking and intermixing across the interface between clad layer and substrate.

• Clad layer achieved with no substrate material reaching top ensuring zero dilution.

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Mahto, M.K., Kumar, A., Raja, A.R. et al. Cladding of copper sheet on mild steel using friction stir welding. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 118, 3345–3360 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08154-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08154-4

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