Friction Stir Welding and its Applications: An Overview

Abstract

Dissimilar metals joining different alloys, thermoplastic and composites is a challenging task due to their dissimilar characteristics and material incompatibility. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a kind of fabrication method, which joins material below its melting point and emerges as an advanced technique for the welding of similar/dissimilar metals. FSW has numerous advantages over conventional welding practices as the temperature generated is below the melting point of base material, which helps the base materials to attain an elastic phase with the least distortion, residual stresses, and defects. Due to such qualities, FSW has many applications in the automobile, aircraft, maritime, railway, and aerospace industries. It is used for fabricating structures like airframes, thin alloy skins, fuel tanks in the aerospace industry due to its high weld quality and geometry accuracy, for lightweight construction in the automotive industry and to build heavy-duty tanks, railway wagons, and coaches for railways.