The effect of additive geometry on the integration of secondary elements during Friction Stir Processing

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering 2018-06, Vol.373 (1), p.12018
• Main Authors: Zens, A, Gnedel, M, Zaeh, M F, Haider, F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Additives; Aluminum; Copper; Foils; Friction stir processing; Iron; Microhardness; Process parameters; Spatial distribution; Workpieces
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/373/1/012018

Friction Stir Processing (FSP) can be used to locally modify properties in materials such as aluminium. This may be used, for example, to produce a fine microstructure or to integrate secondary elements into the base material. The purpose of this work is to examine the effect of the properties of the metal additives on the resulting material distribution in the processed region. For this, commercially pure iron and copper were integrated into an EN AW-1050 aluminium base material using FSP. Iron in the form of powder, wire and foil as well as copper in powder form were assessed. The various additive forms represent materials with differing surface-to-volume ratios as well as varying dispersion characteristics in the processing zone. The processing parameters for each additive form remained constant; however, two- and four-pass FSP processes were conducted. The results of CT analysis proved especially insightful regarding the spatial distribution of the various additive form within the workpiece. As expected, the powder additive was most widely distributed within the welding zone. Micro-hardness mappings showed that the powder additive contributed to the hardness within the weld nugget in comparison to the processed material without secondary elements.