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The diversity and never-ending desire for a better life standard result in a continuous development of the
existing manufacturing technologies. In line with these developments in the existing production technologies
the demand for more complex products increases, which also stimulates new approaches in production
routes of such products, e.g., novel welding procedures. For instance, the friction stir welding (FSW)
technology, developed for joining difcult-to-weld Al-alloys, has been implemented by industry in manu-
facturing of several products. There are also numerous attempts to apply this method to other materials
beyond Al-alloys. However, the process has not yet been implemented by industry for joining these
materials with the exception of some limited applications. The microstructures and mechanical properties
of friction stir welded Al-alloys existing in the open literature will be discussed in detail in this review. The
correlations between weld parameters used during FSW and the microstructures evolved in the weld region
and thus mechanical properties of the joints produced will be highlighted. However, the modeling studies,
material ow, texture formation and developments in tool design are out of the scope of this work as well as
the other variants of this technology, such as friction stir spot welding (FSSW).
Fig. 4 Friction stir joining of Al-extrusion panels used in high speed cruises (Ref 2, 3, 19)
Fig. 5 Friction stir joining of Al-panels in manufacturing of high speed trains in Japan (Ref 19)
Fig. 9 The inuence of tool rotation rate on the size of the recrystallized grains in the SZ of friction stir welded AA2524-T351 alloy with con-
stant welding speed and axial force. Note reduction in the grain size with decreasing rotation rate (Ref 38)
AA 1050 5.0 Conical (no thread) 560 155 0.5 (Ref 51, 53, 54)
AA 1050 1.0 400, 1320 <1 (Ref 88)
AA 1080-O 4.0 20 (Ref 115)
AA 1100 6.0 Cylindrical 400 60 4 (Ref 87)
AA 5052-O 2.0 Standard (a) 2000-4000 500-2000 3-16.1 (Ref 89)
AA 5083-Hxx 6.35 Standard 400 25.4-50.8 6.5-8.5 (Ref 11)
AA 5083-O 6.0 4 (Ref 115)
AA 5083-O 6.0-10.0 46-132 10 (Ref 117)
AA 5083-H116 5.0 MX-Triute 200 300 2-15 (Ref 18)
AA 5251-O 6.0 Standard 800 150 10 (Ref 76)
AA 5251-H34 5.0 MX-Triute 500 500 2-10 (Ref 18)
AA 5754-Hxx 2.0 100 6.4-13.5 (Ref 11)
AA 5754-O 2.3 Frustum-shaped 500 500 2-9 (Ref 18)
(a) Cylindrical threaded tool
and 5083-O (Ref 115) has revealed that the factors governing
the hardness within the joint area is different in particle
containing and particle-free solution-hardened alloys although
the grain renement occurs in both. For instance, a hardness
increase within the stirred zone was observed in the particle-
free Al-alloy 1080-O and the hardness can be explained by
Hall-Petch relation, indicating that the factor affecting the
hardness is grain size. On the other hand, it was observed that
the hardness could not be explained by the grain size in friction
stir welded Al-alloy 5083-O which contains a high density of
small particles. This study has suggested that the hardness
proles are mainly governed by the particle distribution
(Orowan strengthening) in the friction stir welded Al alloy
containing many small particles (Ref 115). Attallah et al. (Ref
18) also proposed that the intermetallic particle distribution has
a greater effect on the onion ring formation than variations in
the processing parameters. Fig. 12 Hardness distributions on transverse cross sections of fric-
A recent work was conducted by Etter et al. (Ref 93) to tion stir welds in Al-alloy 5454 both in annealed, i.e., O (open
determine the effect of initial sheet microstructure on the sysmbols) and cold worked conditions, i.e., H32 (closed sysmbols)
dynamic recrystallization mechanisms. For this purpose, Al (Ref 35)
alloy 5251 sheets were friction stir welded in both cold-worked
(H14) and annealed (O) conditions. They proposed that the indicated in Fig. 12 (Ref 35). Generally, no loss of strength is
recrystallization mechanisms are different in friction stir welded experienced; even higher strength levels can be obtained in the
cold-rolled (pre-strained) and annealed sheets, i.e., a continuous weld zone as mentioned earlier when the material is annealed.
dynamic recrystallization and a geometric dynamic recrystal- However, a hardness decrease may be observed in the stirred
lization, respectively. zone of these alloys when welded in cold-rolled condition
It is also worth pointing out that the hardness proles of unless the heat input is sufciently low, due to the loss of cold-
friction stir welded non-heat-treatable Al-alloys are also work hardening (Table 2). For instance, a signicant reduction
governed by whether the material cold-rolled or annealed, in hardness was reported in weld region of FSWed 5454-H32
depending on the heat input during welding, as clearly alloy (Ref 35). Similarly, Cam et al. (Ref 94) observed a
Fig. 14 TEM bright-eld images of friction stir processed Al 6061-T6 alloy plate: (a) base material, (b) DXZ, (c) HAZ, and (d) TMAZ regions
(Ref 125)
signicant loss of strength in the nugget zone, Table 4. They 160). It is, however, worth pointing out that the degree of
also tried to improve the joint strength by applying a post-weld strength loss in friction stir welds of age-hardened alloys can be
aging (121 C/24 h), which however further decreased the minimized by using optimum weld parameters. In order to
strength, which is likely to be due to the high aging temperature increase the joint efciency values of FSWed heat-treatable
and long aging time used. Sato et al. (Ref 115) also investigated alloys, higher traverse speeds at a constant ratio of rotational
the effect of post-weld heat treatments on the joint performance speed to traverse speed can be used, which in turn reduces the
of FSW Al 6063-T5. They observed that the post-weld aging heat input applied to the workpieces. Moreover, the alloy can
(175 C/12 h) resulted in a slight recovery of the strength while be friction stir welded in the annealed condition, which is a
the post-weld solution heat treatment and aging (SHTA, common approach to overcome the problem of strength loss
530 C/1 h + 175 C/12 h) increased the strength of the joint during arc welding welding (Ref 111, 112).
to above that of the base plate with almost completely restored
ductility. Furthermore, the hardness and strength obtained in the
weld region of age-hardened alloys can somewhat increased by
increasing weld speed at constant rotation rate or increasing 5. General Remarks
rotation rate at constant weld speed as clearly shown in Fig. 18
and 19. Most of FSW studies reported in the literature up to date
FSWed joints of age-hardened Al-alloys exhibit signicant concentrated on FSW of Al-alloys, for which the method is
strength loss in the weld region in the as-welded condition as originally developed. As pointed out earlier, FSW does not
the case in fusion welding. It is thus proposed that it does not generally result in the loss strength in the joint area in the solid-
offer any advantage over arc welding in joining of these alloys solution hardened Al-alloys provided that it is not heavily cold-
with respect to the strength of the weld zone (Ref 15). The FZ worked prior to joining. FSW only results in the formation of
strength can be restored to some extent in arc welding by using recrystallized grains in the weld area of solid solution
appropriate ller wires which is not possible in this solid state strengthened Al-alloys due to the dynamic recrystallization,
welding method. However, the strength of HAZ cannot be provided that the plates are in the annealed condition prior to
restored in fusion welding (Ref 111, 112). Moreover, the base joining. The size of recrystallized grains is determined by
metal degradation in the FZ and HAZ of these alloys is not that welding conditions, hence by the heat input applied to the
signicant in low heat input welding methods, i.e., pulsed arc, workpiece during joining. If the alloy is in the cold-worked
laser, or electron beam welding (Ref 15, 111, 112, 122-124, condition, then there is a much more signicant loss of strength
both in the SZ and HAZ due to the heat input during joining, provided that optimum welding conditions for relatively lower
which anneals and softens the material peak temperatures are employed. That is why FSW has already
The situation is much more complicated in FSW of heat- found remarkable industrial application for Al-alloys and its
treatable Al-alloys. A signicant loss of strength takes place in industrial use is expected to increase.
the weld area of these alloys after FSW, Table 4, both in the Presently, friction stir welding (similar butt-, lap-, and spot-
HAZ and SZ. The loss of strength in the HAZ region is due to welding applications in Al-alloys) is already used industrially in
the overaging in this region as a result of heat input. Overaging manufacturing of ships, aeroplanes and space shuttles, trains,
also takes place in the HAZ of these alloys when they are and other vehicles. The applicability of FSW to join dissimilar
fusion welded, rendering this region the weakest location across Al-alloys plates or Al-alloys plates with other materials (such as
the joint Moreover, the degree of overaging is more pronounced Mg-alloys) is being currently investigated intensively. Thus, the
in fusion welding due to the higher heat inputs involved. This advancement achieved in this area (namely the progress made
difculty is, however, inherent to precipitation hardened Al- in friction stir butt- and spot-welding of Al- and Mg-alloys,
alloys and encountered in almost all welding processes. particularly in dissimilar combinations) will make the mass
Furthermore, the base metal degradation in FSW is not as high production of light transportation systems possible and hence
as that in fusion welding processes involving higher heat inputs signicant reduction in fuel consumption will be achieved. The