Effect of tool pin geometry on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir spot welds of 7075-T651 aluminium alloy

Abstract

7075-T651 aluminium alloy sheets were overlapped and friction stir spot welded using two welding tools having different pin geometries (one with a conical pin and other with a triangular pin) and 800, 1200 and 1600 revolution per minute (rpm) tool rotation speeds at a constant tool plunge and removal speed of 7.3 mm/min, tool plunge depth of 3.8 mm and tool dwell time of 5 s. Microstructure, Vickers microhardness, tensile shear strength, fracture surface after tensile shear test and impact energy of the produced friction stir spot welds were examined. As a result, the welds made via triangular pin tool had considerably higher tensile shear loads than the welds made via conical pin tool since the weld bond widths (stir zones) of the welds made via triangular pin tool were larger. The strongest welds made at 1200 rpm for conical pin tool and triangular pin tool. The tensile shear loads of the welds increased significantly when tool rotation speed increased from 800 to 1200 rpm for both welding tools and then decreased slightly for triangular pin tool and dramatically for conical pin tool with further increasing tool rotation speed from 1200 to 1600 rpm. Maximum tensile shear load of 7.776 kN and impact energy of 16 J obtained in the weld made at 1200 rpm using triangular pin tool. The welds made at 800 rpm had lowest impact energy. The lowest hardness values found in the heat affected zones of the welds. Circumferential fracture mode for conical pin tool welds and nugget pull-out fracture mode for triangular pin tool welds observed after tensile tests.