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Exit-Hole-Free Friction Stir Spot Welding of Aluminum Alloy Sheets Using a Consumable Pin

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Abstract

This work proposes a new friction stir spot welding (FSSW) technique using a consumable pin to produce exit-hole-free joints. To understand the influence of quality of consumable pin, two AA6061-T6 sheets in lap configuration were welded using three different consumable pin materials, viz. AA6061-T6, mild steel (MS) and oil hardened non-shrinking die steel (OHNS). The joint strength of the welds evaluated by lap shear test revealed that FSSW using AA6061-T6, MS and OHNS consumable pins resulted in 40, 36.6 and 37.6% higher joint strengths, respectively, as compared to conventional FSSW with pinless tool. The joint strength using consumable pins was comparable to conventional FSSW with hard pin, however, with the added advantage of an exit-hole-free joint. The study also revealed that AA6061-T6 consumable pin performed better as compared to MS and OHNS consumable pins. The cross sections of the joints were also compared in terms of microstructure and microhardness. In order to understand the physics of the process, finite element (FE) simulations were carried out in DEFORM-3D, which revealed that the consumable pin contributed to stirring of the workpiece material similar to a conventional hard pin. The temperature contour in the joint region was also obtained from simulations. A mechanism of joint formation for FSSW using consumable pin has been proposed based on the study. The consumable pin stirs the workpiece material as it rotates and penetrates into the workpiece while simultaneously getting deformed. Under high downward plunge forge at elevated temperature, bonding of the two sheets occur and the consumable pin gets assimilated in the workpiece material producing an exit-hole-free FSSW joint.

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Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge the support provided by Central Instrumentation Facility of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for conducting the tensile tests and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The authors also acknowledge North East Centre for Biological Sciences and Healthcare Engineering (NECBH), IIT Guwahati, and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, for allowing to use FESEM Instrumentation Facility developed through Project No. BT/COE/34/SP28408/2018.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, 781039, India

    N. Bhardwaj, R. Ganesh Narayanan & Uday S. Dixit

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Correspondence to Uday S. Dixit.

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Bhardwaj, N., Narayanan, R.G. & Dixit, U.S. Exit-Hole-Free Friction Stir Spot Welding of Aluminum Alloy Sheets Using a Consumable Pin. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 32, 2119–2138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-022-07253-x

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