AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON FRICTION STIR WELDED ALUMINUM ALLOY (AA6063-O) JOINTS USING VERTICAL MILLING MACHINE

Abstract

In this work, an experimental investigation and analysis had been made to study the mechanical and micro-structure behaviors of single sided friction stir welded (FSW) aluminum alloy 6063-O joints. Friction stir welding was performed in vertical milling machine using cylindrical profiled AISI H13 Tool steel. The welding had been performed against four input process parameters including Tool Rotational Speed, Weld Traverse Speed, Tool Tilt Angle and Tool Pin Diameter. Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is the technique used to reduce the number of experimental runs to 9. Micro hardness was taken to measure the strength of the weld. The grey relational analysis was performed against micro-hardness to find out the influence of the process parameter. Microstructure was studied using the optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy separately. The microstructures were taken in both advancing and retreating sides of the weld. From the microstructure analysis, weld zones namely Heat Affected Zone and Thermo-Mechanically Affected Zone and Stir Zone were studied.