Design and Development of Manufacturing Facilities for Friction Stir Welding Process using Conventional Milling Machine

Abstract

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that has many advantages including the ability to join high strength alloy as well as dissimilar metals which are hard to be joined by conventional fusion techniques. This welding process involves the penetration of rotating tool which consist of shoulder and prolonged by a pin into a metal plate. The process is followed by advancing speed to weld the metal plate. However, it requires a specialized machine to perform the joining process. A new FSW system including its tools may be costly and thus becomes the main barrier to the development of this FSW process in industry. One of the possible solutions is by adapting the current conventional milling machine with additional rotating and feeding principles to suit the FSW process requirement. In this work, suitable tools, jigs and fixtures for FSW process using conventional milling machine were designed. The design of the tool, jigs and fixtures were fabricated and tested by joining two similar plates of A6061 aluminium alloys. The investigation shows promising results with defect-free welds, good strength and smooth surface finish without gap creation between the welded plates.