OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS OF FRICTION STIR WELDING FOR HE-30 ALUMINIUM ALLOY-A REVIEW

Abstract

Friction stir welding is a solid-state joining process that uses a non-consumable tool to join two facing work pieces without melting the work piece material. This is developed in Dec.1991 by The Welding Institute of UK using for Al, Mg, Cu, Ti, work pieces that could not  welded  by  conventional  types  of welding and recently develop too much in different application because of economical and  quality consideration. Modern types of tool developed recently for harder typed of materials work pieces like different type of steels. Also, different types of machines developed for this purpose. FSW can done by an ordinary CNC milling machine for small work pieces to professional single  purpose  robotic  machine  in  orbital FSW  in steel pipes welding in oil industries The process has  been  widely  used  in  the  aerospace, shipbuilding,  automobile  industries  and  in  many  applications  of commercial importance. This is because of many of its advantages over the conventional welding techniques which include very low distortion, no fumes, no porosity or spatter, no consumables (no filler wire), no special surface treatment and  no  shielding  gas requirements.  FSW joints have improved mechanical properties and are free from porosity or blowholes compared to conventionally welded materials. In this project tapered cylindrical tool with three-sided re-entrant probe made of Tungstun Carbide (Wc) is used for the friction stir welding (FSW) of aluminium alloy HE30 –HE30 and test the mechanical properties of the welded joint by tensile test. Finally, we were compare mentioned mechanical properties and make conclusion. The result will help welding parameter optimization in friction stir welding process. Like rotational speed, depth of welding, travel speed, Tool Axial force, type of material, type of joint, work piece dimension, joint dimension, tool material and tool geometry. The detailed mathematical model is simulated by Minitab15. Experiments were conducted by varying rotational speed, transverse speed, and constant Axial force using L9 orthogonal array of Taguchi method. We analyzed the effect of these three parameters on tensile strength.   In this investigation, an effective approach based on Taguchi method, has been developed to determine the optimum conditions leading to higher tensile strength. The present work aims at optimizing process parameters to achieve high tensile strength.