Investigation of Tool Wear during Friction Stir Welding of Metal Matrix Composites

Abstract

The metal matrix composites (MMCs) have received considerable attention in the world due to their excellent mechanical properties like higher strength, higher hardness, higher wear resistance etc. and because of these attractive properties, MMCs have been used in several applications like aerospace, marine, automotive etc. Friction stir welding (FSW) is preferred over conventional welding methods to achieve defect free welds for joining parts made of MMCs. Wear of the welding pin tool, a consequence of prolonged contact between the tool and the harder reinforcements is the key issue for the FSW. The present work, wear in stir welding tool is studied by varying the process parameters (rotational speed, traverse speed and length of weld) while welding aluminum alloy, aluminum matrix composites.