Study of a fiber laser assisted friction stir welding process

Friction stir welding is a relatively new joining technique. This technique, which is considered a derivative of the more common friction welding method, was developed mainly for aluminum and its alloys. In recent years, this method has been used to join various other alloys. FSW has many advantages, including the following: the welding procedure is relatively simple with no consumables or filler metal; joint edge preparation is not needed; oxide removal prior to welding is unnecessary; high joint strength has been achieved in aluminum and magnesium alloys; FSW can be used with alloys that cannot be fusion welded due to crack sensitivity. The drawbacks of FSW include the need for powerful fixtures to clamp the workpiece to the welding table, the high force needed to move the welding tool forward, the relatively high wear rate of the welding tool, and weld speeds in FSW are slower, which can lead to longer process times. To overcome these drawbacks, a fiber laser-assisted friction stir welding system was designed (FLAFSW). The system combined a conventional commercial friction machine and a fiber pumped laser system. The scope is to investigate the influence of the laser assistance on the weld quality. A number of different aluminum plates, which are still mentioned to be difficult to be joint as intermetallic phases appear during melting welding techniques, were used. The evaluation of quality was performed through analysis of appearance, mechanical and microstructure characterization of the weld.