Influence of shoulder interface geometry on microstructural and mechanical properties of 2014 Al alloy fabricated via friction stir welding

Abstract

Friction stir tool is that the essential tool of friction stir welding process. In this research work primarily explores the effect of the variant pin geometries on the mechanical and microstructural properties of AA 2014 Al alloy. By varying the interface geometry between the pin and shoulders of the tools, such as threaded tapered straight cylindrical and threaded tapered concave cylindrical, the joints were fabricated. In this investigation, microscopic examination of the weld zone and the mechanical properties test results shown that, the best weld were obtained with threaded tapered concave cylindrical (R = 3.5 mm) stir pin at the tool rotational speed of 900 rpm and tool traverse speed of 40 mm/min.