Joining of dissimilar

materials– problems and

solutions

Professor Stewart Williams

Presentation overview

• Classification of dissimilar materials

• Problems of joining dissimilar materials
• Potential solutions
• Examples
• Summary
Dissimilar material classification

• Slightly dissimilar – essentially the same material but

with slightly different composition – often metals

Different steels to each other

Different series Al alloy (e.g. 2000 to 7000)
• Dissimilar – same type of material to each other (e.g.
metal to metal)
 Compatible material with some degree of solubility in each other
(e.g. copper to steel)
 In compatible material with little or no solubility (e.g. Aluminium
to steel)
• Highly dissimilar – different material types (e.g. metal to
ceramic or metal to organic)
Joining of dissimilar materials

• Issues
 Widely different physical characteristics

Melting temperature

Vapourisation temperature

Coefficient of thermal expansion

Thermal diffusivity
 Chemical incompatibility (formation of intermediate phases – often
very undesirable) resulting in a severe deterioration of properties
 Joining of dissimilar materials

• Some solutions
 Mechanical joining

Traditional fastening (bolts, rivets etc.)

Mechanical interlocking
 Solid state joining - friction processes
 Fusion Joining

Brazing

Thermal cycle management of the weld pool to control time-
temperature profile

Control of weld pool mixing to achieve desired phase balance

Application of inter-layers to modify compositions (weld metal
engineering)
Application potential of laser processes – a
schematic representation A
Three
material
phase
diagram
(i) Mixing

A B A B

B X
(ii) Varying compositions

A
A A

B B B

(iii) Additional layer and optimised sequence Metal - A

a b c Metal - B
Interlayer- X

Interlayer- Y

Melt pool
A
Additive manufacture of compatible dissimilar
materials - Steel/bronze (CuSi3%) parts

Yield 140 MPa, UTS 300 MPa,

elongation 12%, failure in bronze

Vertical hardness - Cu to Steel

150
145
140

Vickers Hardness
135
130
125
120
115
110
105
100
-3000 -2000 -1000 0 1000 2000 3000
Distance in µ
Compatible materials - joining titanium to Nitinol
(50/50 Ni/Ti)
Phase Diagram for Nickel and Titanium

Crack free zones

Weld from Ti to NiTi

or
for NiTi at top use Ni
fillers

8
100% Ni 100% Ti
Joining titanium to Nitinol (50/50 Ni/Ti) - Control
of mixing ratio using power beam welding

Increasing
Laser Power
Titanium

Nitinol

Increasing
% Ni

9
Nitinol to Stainless Steel Weld - Effect of
material order in pulsed laser welding
No shielding

Nitinol

Stainless
steel
20% Titanium 4% Titanium

Argon shielding

Nitinol

Stainless
steel

10
Joining Stainless Steel to Nitinol - Control
of mixing ratio using Ni interlayer

Stainless
steel

Nickel

Nitinol

Increasing nickel content suppresses the brittle

intermetallic Fe2Ti

11
Pulsed laser welding of gold coated steel
to copper wire

Failed in weld
metal under load

Modified laser
parameters –
good weld
 Aluminium to steel – Intermetallic layer control
using lasers

1200

Melt pool Inter – Steel

1000
Metallic

Vickers microhardness [HV]

800

Steel ~ 1500
~ 43 600

400
Aluminium ~660
~250
Al
Meltingconductivity
Thermal temperature [ºC]
[W/(mK)] 200

50 µm

0
0 1 2 3 4 5

Distance [mm]
Aluminium to steel – Intermetallic layer control
using lasers

Interlayer thickness (µm)

Maximum
thickness

Specific Process Energy (kJ)

Stainless steel to Nitinol edge weld – Application
of interlayer and optimised laser process

300
µm
SS V NiTi
Nb
SS V
Nb
NiTi NiTi

SS

Weld 1
Brittle weld metal. Crack
visible after welding
Weld 1
Weld 2
Weld 3
Extremely ductile weld metal. Failure
occurred on the Nitinol parent metal side
on complete reverse bending
Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) metal joining -
Metal foam interlayer

Resin impregnated
metal foam detail
 FRP metal joining -
CMT Pin system – surface structuring
Pins shown below are 3mm in height and attached by CMT welding process.
CFRP Metal joining -
Computer x-ray tomography of embedded pins

Pin with
root defect
bent during
embedding

Resin rich
regions
FRP Metal joining - CMT Pin structuring

35mm

5mm

CFRP epoxy pre-preg.

Stainless Steel 304 with 12mm
0.8mm Ø pins. Pins before Specimen before testing
adding CFRP
Reaction force (kN)

5mm
Unpinned
With pins 1
With pins 2 Specimen sectioned after
With pins 3 complete failure
With pins 4

ɛ joint (%)
CFRP metal joining - CMT pin structuring –
with crack
Initial crack position

Finite element model

With pins +37%
Unpinned
Reaction force (kN)

 Pin-locked joint show enhanced

non-linear behaviour
 Joint ultimate load is increased by
37% and energy at failure increased
by 1160%

Displacement (mm)
CFRP mechanical interlocked structure –
Can we do better
Of course – use a laser!

Fabricated CFRP titanium structure using laser drilling and welding

Summary
• Joining of dissimilar materials is becoming increasingly
important as engineers strive for reduced weight and
improved performance from engineering structures
• There are a wide variety of scientific and technological
problems
• A suck and see approach will not work – appliance of
science is needed
• It should keep us (researchers) busy for the foreseeable
future
• It will be major topic of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative
Manufacturing if it goes forward
• Please talk to us about your need and ideas
Thanks for your attention

Contact details
Professor Stewart Williams
s.williams@cranfield.ac.uk
44 (0)1234 754693