Abstract
Friction stir spot welding (FSSW) process is widely used in the automotive industry for a range of applications such as battery components, standard wire connectors and terminals. This manuscript addresses two grand challenges in the arena of FSSW, hitherto, unaddressed in the extant literature: (i) lap joining of thin sheets (0.3 mm thickness) of AA 5754 alloy and (ii) lap joining of more than two sheets using FSSW. To accomplish this task, a novel pinless convex-shaped tool was designed to alter the stress state while gradually advancing the tool which led to achieving stress state necessary for obtaining defect-free lap joints. The weld joints were inspected by optical microscopy, SEM imaging and analysed by nanoindentation tests and Vickers microindentation tests for assessment of the quality of the weld interface (WI). Process parameters of FSSW such as torque on the tool and axially applied load were used to analytically obtain the average local measure of peak normal and axial stresses as well as the coefficient of friction in the contact zone. In samples welded at low rotational speeds, the strain-hardening mechanism was seen dominating in contrast to samples welded at higher rotational speeds, which showed thermal softening. As a direct consequence of this, the samples welded at low rotational speeds showed much higher hardness at the weld surface than the samples welded at higher speeds. A strong transition of strain hardening to thermal softening was noticeable beyond an applied strain rate of 400 s−1.

















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Abbreviations
- CDRX:
-
Continuous dynamic recrystallisation
- CoF:
-
Coefficient of friction
- CFSW:
-
Conventional friction stir welding
- CFSSW:
-
Conventional friction stir spot welding
- DS-FSW:
-
Double-side friction stir welding
- EDS:
-
Energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis
- FE-SEM:
-
Field emission scanning electron microscope
- FFSSW:
-
Flat friction stir spot welding
- FSC:
-
Friction stir channelling
- FSP:
-
Friction stir processing
- FSR:
-
Friction stir riveting
- FSS:
-
Friction stir surfacing
- FSBR:
-
Friction stir blind riveting
- FSCl:
-
Friction surface cladding
- FSIF:
-
Friction stir incremental forming HD
- FSSVW:
-
Friction stir spot vibration welding
- FSSW :
-
Friction stir spot welding
- FSW:
-
Friction stir welding
- HAZ:
-
Heat affected zone
- HD:
-
Hook defects
- HFSC:
-
Hybrid friction stir channelling
- IL-FSSW:
-
Intermediate layer friction stir spot welding
- In-situ SPM:
-
In-situ scanning probe microscopy
- MFSC:
-
Modified friction stir channelling
- RFSSW:
-
Refill friction stir spot welding
- RPM :
-
Revolutions per minute
- RSW:
-
Resistance spot welding
- PFSSW:
-
Protrusion friction stir spot welding
- PLC:
-
Portevin-Le Chatelier effect
- PLT-FSSW :
-
Friction stir spot welding with pinless tool
- SADP:
-
Selected area diffraction pattern
- SEM:
-
Scanning electron microscope
- SFSSW:
-
Swing friction stir spot welding
- SFSW:
-
Submerged friction stir welding
- SPM:
-
Scanning probe microscopy
- SR-FSW:
-
Self-reacting (bobbin) stir welding
- SZ:
-
Stir zone
- TMAZ:
-
Thermomechanical affected zone
- TWI :
-
The welding institute
- USW:
-
Ultrasonic spot welding
- WFSSW:
-
Walking friction stir spot welding
- WI:
-
Welded interface
- μFSW:
-
Micro friction stir welding
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Acknowledgements
Authors are grateful to the DAAD program for the financial support to perform the work. Specific thanks to our collaborators Dr. Vishal Panchal and Dr. Stephen Lewandowski from Bruker, UK as well as the support of the Henry Royce Institute for Ms. Danka Labus Zlatanovic through the Royce PhD Equipment Access Scheme (Dr David Stanley) enabling access to TEM facilities at Royce@Cambridge via UKRI Grant EP/R00661X/1. We also express thanks to the STSM support from Cost Action CA15102 (funded by H2020).
Funding
SG received research support provided by the UKRI (Grants No.: EP/K503241/1, EP/L016567/1, EP/S013652/1, EP/T001100/1, EP/S036180/1 and EP/T024607/1), H2020 (Cost Actions (CA18125, CA18224 and CA16235) and EURAMET EMPIR A185 (2018)), Royal Academy of Engineering Grant No. IAPP18-19\295 (Indo-UK partnership), Royal Academy of Engineering Grant No. TSP1332 (South Africa-UK partnership) and Newton Fellowship award from the Royal Society (NIF\R1\191571). Also, computation calculation work performed on the Isambard Bristol, UK supercomputing service was accessed by Resource Allocation Panel (RAP) grant.
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Labus Zlatanovic, D., Balos, S., Bergmann, J.P. et al. An experimental study on lap joining of multiple sheets of aluminium alloy (AA 5754) using friction stir spot welding. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 107, 3093–3107 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05214-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05214-z