Preliminary Investigation of the Microstructure and Mechanical Behaviour of 2024 Aluminium Alloy Friction Spot Welds

Abstract

Friction Spot Welding (FSpW) is a new solid-state joining process able to produce similar and dissimilar overlap connections in different classes of materials. Advantages of this new technique are: short production cycles, high performance joints, absence of filler materials and good surface finishing supported by material refilling in the spot area. Although few authors have addressed the microstructural and mechanical behavior of friction spot welds of Aluminum alloys, there is still a lack of a systematic evaluation on the process-properties relationship. In this work the AA2024-T3 alloy (rolled sheets) was selected for the welding procedure. Design of Experiment and Analyses of Variance techniques were employed to evaluate joint shear strength under static loading. Sound joints with elevated shear strength were achieved and the influence of the main process parameters on joint strength evaluated.