Int J Adv Manuf Technol
DOI 10.1007/s00170-017-0306-1
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effects of friction stir spot welding parameters on morphology
and mechanical property of modified cast nylon 6 joints produced
by double-pin tool
Yinfei Yan 1 & Yifu Shen 1 & Wei Zhang 1 & Wei Guan 1
Received: 24 December 2016 / Accepted: 13 March 2017
# Springer-Verlag London 2017
Abstract A newly designed tool with double pins was uti-
lized in the underwater friction stir spot welding (UFSSW) of
modified cast nylon 6 sheets. A circular gasket was added
between two sheets, acting as additional filler material to the
nugget zone. The effect of welding parameters (rotational
speed, plunge rate, plunge depth, dwell time, and waiting
time) on weld formation and joint shear strength was investi-
gated. Crown appearance and cross-sectional morphology of
joints produced at different welding parameters were observed
and compared. Lap-shear tensile tests were carried out to eval-
uate the joint strength. The results showed that joints per-
formed at excessive rotational speed, large or low plunge rate,
high plunge depth, and extreme dwell time displayed extru-
sion rings accompanied with cavities throughout or near the
bonded areas. Cracks were formed at small rotational speed
and short dwell time. With the increase of welding parameters
except waiting time, the joint strength increased first and then
decreased. Increased waiting time exerted a positive effect on
the weld formation and strength. Two fracture modes, namely
cross nugget mode and pull nugget mode, were observed in
the lap-shear tests. Joints failed with cross nugget mode gen-
erally showed larger fracture loads and displacement than
joints fractured with pull nugget mode. The maximum joint
fracture load was 2825.2 N, which was larger than the joint
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
(doi:10.1007/s00170-017-0306-1) contains supplementary material,
which is available to authorized users.
* Yifu Shen
yfshen_nuaa@hotmail.com
1
College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), Yudao Street 29,
Nanjing 210016, People’s Republic of China
performed by a tool with a conventional cylindrical pin. The
maximum shear strength of 30.2 MPa was obtained, which
was about 58.4% of the base material.
Keywords Double pins . Friction stir spot welding . Modified
cast nylon 6 . Morphology . Shear strength
1 Introduction
Modified polymeric materials with lightweight as well as im-
proved mechanical properties are increasingly replacing metal
alloys in the automotive industry [1]. This tendency aims at
reducing the weight of vehicles to improve their performance
and decrease the energy consumption. It is well known that
spot joining is a common and critical joining technology in the
manufacturing of vehicles [2]. The increased application of
polymeric materials in automotive industry undoubtedly
makes a new request for the spot joining method [3].
Generally, polymeric components can be spot joined by me-
chanical fastening (riveting, bolting, etc.), bonding (adhesive
bonding and solvent bonding), or spot welding (friction spot
joining, laser transmission spot welding). However, mechan-
ical fastening requires external parts and substantial labor in-
put. Also, stress concentration usually happens near the fas-
tened joint [4]. The evaporation of adhesive or solvent used in
the bonding process is harmful to the environment and the
workers’ health [4]. What is more, surface preparation in ad-
hesive bonding and slow reaction in solvent bonding are both
time-consuming. Friction spot joining [5] relays on the con-
duction of the frictional heat generated between the upper
sheet and rotational tool to soften the material near the lapped
surface. However, due to the low thermal conductivity of ther-
moplastic, it is hard to be applied to join two plastic work-
pieces. Laser transmission spot welding works by the laser

radiation. Upper sheets are usually transparent to transmit the
laser, and the lower sheets should effectively absorb the laser
radiation [6]. In this case, the weld materials are limited and
the additional work, such as adding absorbing particles be-
tween lapped surfaces [7] to reinforce the absorbing efficien-
cy, is required before welding operation in some cases.
Friction stir spot welding (FSSW) is another spot welding
technology to thermoplastics, which depends on the frictional
heat and deformation heat to soften the materials. It possesses a
number of advantages compared with above methods, such as
small or no preparation work, low energy consumption, no
emission of harmful gas, and small thermal effect on the work-
pieces. Also, it is easy to be automotive and has been demon-
strated to be feasible to joining almost all thermoplastics, in-
cluding high-density polyethylene (HDPE) [8–10],
poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) [11–13], polyamide (PA)
[14], polypropylene (PP) [15–20], acrylonitrile butadiene sty-
rene (ABS) [21], and polycarbonate (PC) [22–26]. Until now,
researchers have done excellent work in the FSSW of thermo-
plastics, including the investigation of tool geometry and fea-
tures, the investigation and the optimization of process param-
eters, the modification of FSSW tool, and the measurement and
the control of material temperature and tool force.
The effect of pin profiles on joint formation has been studied
by Bilici and Yükler [8] in the FSSW of HDPE. The tool with
tapered pin and concave shoulder bottom was found to be the
best in producing a joint with excellent performance. Tool fea-
tures were found to be an important factor to the joint quality by
Bilici [16] in the FSSW of 4-mm PP sheets. The tapered pin tool
with 7.5 mm pin diameter, 15° pin angle, 5.5 mm pin length,
30 mm shoulder diameter, and 6° shoulder angle was determined
to be the optimal geometry. Using such optimal tool, Bilici and
Yükler [9, 10] determine the influence and importance of process
parameters on HDPE joints. Increased rotational speed, dwell
time, and plunge depth led to an obvious increase of joint strength
initially, but a slight strength decrease happened when parameters
became larger than the critical values. Plunge rate had a negligible
effect on joint quality. Dwell time was determined to have a
dominant effect on joint strength while plunge depth was found
to be insignificant. The optimization of process parameters to
produce optimal joints was done by Bilici [15] in another paper.
The Taguchi approach was utilized to arrange the experiment,
and the optimal welding parameter was determined. Compared
with welds produced with initial parameters, the joint strength
was promoted about 47.7% at the optimal parameter conditions.
Dashatan et al. [21] successfully friction stir spot weld
PMMA and ABS sheets by an improved tool with a stationary
shoulder. All the parameters, especially the plunge rate, had
dramatic effects on joint strength. Increased dwell time or
decreased plunge rate had a positive effect on joint quality.
To remove the undesired keyhole usually produced by a con-
ventional tool, Junior et al. [11] adopted a tool whose sleeve
and pin can move independently to friction spot weld (FSpW)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
PMMA and PMMA-SiO2 nanocomposite. Sharp weld lines
were generated at low rotational speed, and excessive plastic
deformation, volumetric defects, and a lack of material mixing
were observed when rotational speed was excessive. They
[12] also found that the existence of SiO2 was able to improve
the material conductivity, which, in turn, enhanced the soften-
ing and the flow of weld material. The weld was better refilled,
and the defect of weld line became smoother. Gonçalves et al.
[14] also friction spot welded carbon fiber-reinforced polyam-
ide 66 laminates. They concluded that the strength of the joint
was comparable to that produced by ultrasonic welding.
Paoletti et al. [22] monitored the evolution of plunge force
and torque in the FSSW of PC plate. The maximum plunge
force was generated just after the pin touched the sheet surface,
and the torque underwent a steep increase when the shoulder
touched the upper sheet. The tool temperature increased with
the plunging of the tool. In another paper, they [23] showed that
the plunge force and torque simultaneously increased with the
increase of plunge rate or the decrease of rotational speed; the
material temperature was lowered when plunge rate increased
and rotational speed and dwell time decreased. Lambiase et al.
[24, 25] investigated the influence of tool geometry on plunge
load, torque, and mechanical behavior in FSSW of PC and
concluded that the taper angle of the pin had a negligible effect
on plunge load and torque and it affected the joint shear strength
only when the diameters of shoulder and pin were small. The
load and torque increased with the increase of shoulder diame-
ter and pin diameter. Increased shoulder diameter had a positive
influence on shear strength while large pin diameter was not
beneficial to joint strength. Based on their previous work, they
investigated the effect of plunge force on the joint strength.
They found that the proper control of the plunge force in the
FSSW process can promote joint strength up to 37% [26].
Optimizing the welding parameters, selecting an appropriate
FSSW tool, developing an advanced tool, adding additives, and
so on are some feasible ways to promote joint strength. An
FSpW tool [14] is an advanced tool that can successfully pro-
duce joints without keyholes, but it makes a high request for the
Fig. 1 a The dimension (in mm) and b the photograph of the double-pin
tool
Int J Adv Manuf Technol

clamped by a properly designed clamping system, and the

overlapped area was set as 50 × 50 mm2. A modified comput-
er numerical control (CNC) milling machine and a self-
designed double-pin tool were used to friction stir spot weld
MC901 sheets. The diameter and the length of double pins are
Fig. 2 The schematic of the water tank
3 and 7.8 mm, respectively, and the distance between the
double pins is 4 mm, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The pin and the
equipment and consequently increases the cost. A conventional
shoulder were machined from bearing steel GCr15 and struc-
single-pin tool always produces joints with large keyholes in
tural steel 1045, respectively.
the center of the weld, which occupy large volumes of the
Material extrusion was the common phenomenon in the
nuggets. To reduce the equipment cost as well as increase the
FSSW of polymeric materials in air condition in the previous
nugget size, a tool with double pins was designed and applied
researches. Simões and Rodrigues [28] reported that the loss
in the FSSW of modified cast nylon 6 in the present paper. It
of filler material usually happened in the material squeezing
aimed at increasing the nugget size by softening the material
process, which, in turn, resulted in the formation of weld dis-
around and between the rotating pins simultaneously. In this
continuities. Therefore, in order to avoid the formation of
experiment, the FSSW process was designed to be operated
defects resulted from the extrusion of filler material in the
underwater [27]. The feasibility of FSSW modified cast nylon
FSSW of modified cast nylon 6, the experiments were de-
6 sheets by a double-pin tool in water was demonstrated first.
signed to be carried out underwater. In this case, an under-
Soon afterwards, the effect of welding parameters (plunge rate,
shoulder material was hard to be softened and material extru-
plunge depth, rotational speed, dwell time, and waiting time)
sion can be restricted. To carry out experiments underwater,
on the weld formation and joint shear strength was studied.
water tank is installed on the surface of the upper sheet, as the
schematic shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 3 shows the steps of underwater friction stir spot
2 Materials and methods
welding (UFSSW) of MC901 sheets. At the beginning of
the plunging phase, the tool rotates at a predetermined speed
In the present investigation, the modified cast nylon 6
(rotational speed) and then moves to the workpiece in the
(Nylatron MC901) with the size of 120 × 50 × 6 mm3 was
vertical direction at a certain rate (plunge rate). The initial
friction stir spot welded. It is a kind of heat-stabilized cast
axial displacement (DA) of the tool is 0 mm, and it starts to
nylon with high toughness and fatigue resistance. The mea-
increase when the pins touch the upper sheet. When the shoul-
sured result shows that the tensile strength of MC901 is
der touches the upper sheet, the rotating tool continues to
89.6 MPa and the break elongation is about 28%. Then, the
plunge for a certain depth (plunge depth). The stirring phase
corresponding shear strength of 51.7 MPa can be calculated
starts after the finish of the plunge of the tool. In the stirring
according to the von Mises criterion [26]
phase, the tool only rotates at the preset speed. The material is
pffiffiffi
τ s ¼ σs = 3 ð1Þ gradually softened by the frictional heat and is mixed by the
rotating tool simultaneously. The duration of the stirring phase
where τs is the shear strength of the base material and σs is the is called dwell time. At the end of the stirring phase, the tool
tensile strength of the base material. The specimens were stops rotating immediately and keeps immobile for a proper

Fig. 3 Steps of UFSSW of

MC901 sheets by the double-pin
tool. a Plunging. b Stirring. c
Waiting. d Retracting. A-A
geometry of the bonded area [8]
(X is the diameter of the bonded
area)
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Table 2 The experimental arrangement of welding conditions

Constant parameters Variables Specific values

PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 R 400 600 800 1000 –

R600PD0.4DT25WT15 PR 5 15 25 35 –
R600PR15DT25WT15 PD 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 –
R600PR15PD0.4WT15 DT 5 15 25 35 45
Fig. 4 The morphology of the spot welds a without a gasket and b with a R600PR15PD0.4DT25 WT 0 5 10 15 –
gasket performed at the same welding parameters

time (waiting time). The proper waiting time was demonstrat-
ed to be necessary by Bilici and Yükler [9], who reported that
the joints produced with no waiting time had the fracture load
much lower than that performed with 30 s waiting time.
Finally, the tool retracts from the weld zone and a spot weld
joint is formed. It should be noted in Fig. 3a that a cylindrical
gasket (MC901) is placed between two workpieces and a cir-
cular groove with the depth of 0.5 mm is processed on the
surface of the lower sheet to locate the gasket. The addition of
gasket aims at removing the cavities that resulted from mate-
rial shortage. The diameter and thickness of the gasket are 9.6
and 2 mm, respectively, which are determined after the trial
and error method. Figure 4 shows the morphology of two
joints performed with and without a gasket at the same
welding conditions. The weld produced without a gasket
shows a concave crown appearance and a cavity while the
weld performed with a gasket is defect-free, as shown in
Fig. 4a, b. Figure 3(A-A) shows the geometry of the bonded
area, which is produced by cutting along the lapped interface.
The area of the bonded area can be calculated by putting the
diameter of the bonded area (X) into the following equation:
 
AB ¼ π X 2 −18 =4 ð2Þ
The crude ranges of welding parameters were obtained by
referring to the research studies conducted by previous re-
searchers. Then, the proper ranges of parameters that can pro-
duce joints with characteristic morphology were determined
by trial and error. Table 1 reveals the corresponding symbols
and ranges of the welding parameters. The utilization of sym-
bols aims at simplifying the expression. The specific designa-
tion is depicted as follows: R is the rotational speed (rpm), PR
is the plunge rate (mm/min), PD is the plunge depth (mm), DT
is the dwell time (s), and WT is the waiting time (s). Therefore,
R 6 0 0 m e a ns a r o t a t i o n a l sp e e d o f 6 0 0 r p m a n d
PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 means a plunge rate of 15 mm/min,
plunge depth of 0.4 mm, dwell time of 25 s, and waiting time
of 15 s.
In the preliminary trial and error phase, it was found that
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 was a proper welding condition
because the weld produced with such combination was excel-
lent. Then, based on the parameter combination, each single
parameter was allowed to change among the ranges shown in
Table 1 according to the control variable method. The detailed
arrangement of welding parameters is listed in Table 2. The
crown appearance and cross section of spot welds performed
with the arranged parameter combinations were observed and
compared. The characteristic morphology was analyzed by an
optical microscope. In this way, the influence of parameters on
the joint formation can be investigated. The lap-shear tensile
loads (LT) of the specimens (as the configuration shown in
Fig. 5) were tested via the CMT 5105 SANS microcomputer
control electronic universal tensile testing machine. Tests were
carried out at room temperature (20 °C), and the cross-head
speed was set as 50 mm/min according to ASTM D638-10.
The joint shear strength (SS), which was influenced by the
material mechanical properties, the weld morphology, and
the joint geometry, was calculated by the equation
 
S S ¼ LT =AB ¼ 4LT =π X 2 −18 ð3Þ
where SS was the shear strength, LT was the lap-shear tensile
load, and AB was the area of the bonded area. The shear
strength of the joints was obtained by averaging five

Table 1 The welding parameters and the employed value ranges

Symbols Welding parameters Units Range

R Rotational speed rpm 400–1000

PR Plunge rate mm/min 5–35
PD Plunge depth mm 0.2–0.8
DT Dwell time s 5–45
WT Waiting time s 0–15
Fig. 5 Configuration of lap-shear tensile test specimens (in mm)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 6 The schematic of the
formation process of weld
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15
replicates. Then, the influence of welding parameters on joint
strength can be investigated. What is more, the relationship
between the joint morphology and joint strength can be
studied.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 The effect of gasket addition on weld formation
As shown in Fig. 4, the welds produced with and without a
gasket show different weld morphologies. Apparently, gasket
addition can effectively solve the problem of cavity formation
inside the weld. To reveal the effect of gasket addition on weld
formation, the morphology of the welds produced at different
DA values was observed, as schematized in Fig. 6. At the
beginning of the tool plunge phase, the center column that
consists of unsoftened region and thin-outer softened region
is formed, as the figures of DA = 2.0 mm and DA = 4.0 mm are
shown. The surrounded annular groove is fractionally filled
with fragments fabricated by rotating pins. Extrusion ring is
formed due to the upper flow of softened material caused by
the extrusion of rotating pins. At DA close to 6.0 mm, the
upper sheet is forced downward by a clamping force, making
the groove more filled with fragments and the column higher
than the upper sheet surface due to the gasket. The center
column is separated from the upper sheet at the same time
and is forced to offset away from the center region. Then, it
Fig. 7 The macromorphology of
the joint produced by the double-
pin tool
rotates following the rotational pins at high rotational speed.
Subsequently, with the further plunge of the tool, the column
touches the shoulder bottom and is compressed to tilt towards
the center. Under the shoulder compression, the heat generated
between the rotating column and the base material increases
and then more material is softened inside the weld zone, as can
be seen in DA = 8.0 mm. At DA = 9.3 mm, the shoulder bottom
touches the upper sheet surface and the fragmented material is
compressed to be compact. The plunge depth of 0.4 mm is
carried out subsequently, and the weld material is sufficiently
softened and mixed after proper dwell time, as can be seen at
DA = 9.7 mm. Finally, a weld joint is formed after the retrac-
tion of the tool.
3.2 Effects of welding parameters on spot weld
morphology
Figure 7 shows the morphology of the spot weld
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15. The indentation the shoulder
produced and two keyholes the pins left can be clearly observed
from the joint crown appearance. In addition, the shoulder-
affected zone and the pin-affected zone can be clearly distin-
guished due to different colors. Figure 7a, b presents the cross
sections of the joint, which are obtained by cutting along lines
a-a and b-b through thickness. Different from the joint produced
by the conventional single-pin tool [8], the joint performed by
the double-pin tool is characterized by two small keyholes
(Fig. 7a). The profile of the joint is almost axisymmetrical.
The weld interface (marked by the black dotted line in

Fig. 8 a–c The
macromorphology of the joint
performed by tool with a
conventional cylindrical pin
Fig. 7b) is straight and nearly perpendicular to the workpiece
surface. The bottom profile of the weld (marked by white dotted
line in Fig. 7b) is wavy with a concave-up profile below the
rotating pins and a concave-down profile between the rotating
pins. A region which is different from stirring zone (SZ) in color
can be observed in the upper paracentral region of the spot weld
in Fig. 7b. From the weld formation process schematized in
Fig. 6, it is reasonable to infer that the region is the rest of the
unsoftened region of the column. Three factors can explain its
generation. On the one hand, the friction between the shoulder
and the workpiece surface is small in the paracentral region. On
the other hand, the heat in the upper region is lowered due to
thermal transmission from the tool to water. Moreover, the sur-
rounding heat is hard to transmit to such region due to the poor
thermal conductivity of MC901. Thus, the material in the upper
paracentral region undergoes insufficient heat and is defined as
the heat-affected zone (HAZ). Figure 7c displays the image of
the circular bonded area. The diameter of the bonded area is
11.7 mm, which is a little larger than the revolve diameter of the
pins. Through Eq. 2, the corresponding AB of 93.4 mm2 can be
calculated. Figure 8 presents the crown appearance (Fig. 8a),
cross section (Fig. 8b), and bonded area (Fig. 8c) of the weld
produced by a conventional cylindrical pin tool at
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15. The diameter of the cylindrical
pin is equal to the revolve diameter of the double pins. By
measuring and calculating, the effective diameter of the bonded
area (X) is 11.9 mm and the corresponding joint AB is
32.7 mm2, which is much smaller than AB of the joint made
by the double-pin tool. Also, compared with the images in
Fig. 7, it is easy to find that the joint produced by the double-
pin tool presents smooth surface formation and a small volume
of keyhole.
Figure 9 shows the crown appearance and cross section of
joints made with different rotational speeds. To analyze the
Fig. 9 Macrographs of spot
welds performed at
PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 and
different rotational speeds (a
400 rpm, b 600 rpm, c 800 rpm,
and d 1000 rpm)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
effect of rotational speed independently, the other welding
parameters are set as PR15PD0.4DT25WT15. The spot welds
produced with a rotational speed of no more than 600 rpm
present a smooth crown surface, as illustrated in Fig. 9a, b,
respectively. The extrusion ring, however, is formed at R800
and becomes severer at R1000, as shown in Fig. 9c, d. This
variance is closely related to the friction between the shoulder
and workpiece surface at different rotational speeds. Low ro-
tational speed results in small heat input to the material under
the shoulder. In this case, elastic deformation occurs to the
sheets and little surface material is abrased by the shoulder
bottom. The thickness reduction of the upper sheet is small
in this welding condition. At rotational speed larger than
600 rpm, the heat produced by the shoulder is sufficient to
soften the under-shoulder material. Rings are generated due to
the extrusion of the softened material at the shoulder compres-
sion and the centrifugal force [29]. In addition, it is well
known that the increased heat input and shear force at higher
rotational speed reduce the viscosity of the polymers [30] and
centrifugal force becomes larger with the increase of rotational
speed. Therefore, the material extrusion becomes heavier at
R1000, which results in bigger rings, as shown in Fig. 9d.
Cavity and cracks are observed in the interior of the joint
produced at R400. This phenomenon is mainly attributed to
the insufficient heat generation and material flow at low rota-
tional speed. The spot weld made at R600 presents an excel-
lent weld formation without defects, according to Fig. 10,
where the magnification of the SZ is shown. However, cavi-
ties emerge again when rotational speed becomes larger than
600 rpm, as displayed in Fig. 9c, d. As mentioned above, the
occurrence of the extrusion of under-shoulder material at high
rotational speed makes the touch between the shoulder bottom
and the workpiece incompact. Also, it results in the generation
of ejection channel under the shoulder, as is schematized in
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 10 The micromorphology of the nugget of weld R600PR15PD0.
4DT25WT15
Fig. 11. In this case, a nugget material is easy to be squeezed
out from the nugget zone due to high shoulder compression
and strong stirring, which, in turn, leads to the generation of
cavity. What is more, material extrusion often results in the
decrease of shoulder compression, which makes the weld
shrinkage obvious at the cooling phase. Based on the expla-
nation above, the porous nugget morphology that originated
from an excessive shear action at R1000 can be easily under-
stood. The morphological variance suggests that rotational
speed has an important effect on the joint formation. By ob-
serving Fig. 9, it is also reasonable to conclude that high ro-
tational speed results in the enlargement of the shoulder-
affected zone and the reduction of the upper sheet thickness.
By measuring, the X values of the joints produced at R400,
R600, R800, and R1000 are 11.6, 11.7, 11.8, and 11.8 mm,
respectively. According to Eq. 2, the corresponding AB values
of 91.5, 93.4, 95.2, and 95.2 mm2 are calculated. More heat
generation at increased rotational speed leads to the increase
of AB. But, the decrease of frictional coefficient and that of
shoulder compression lead to decreased heat input. So, AB
cannot keep a consistent increase with rotational speed. In
other words, the variation of AB towards rotational speed is
small, which means that rotational speed has a small effect on
the nugget size.
The morphology of the spot welds performed in different
plunge rates is shown in Fig. 12. In this investigation, only
plunge rate is allowed to change and the other welding
Fig. 11 Schematic of the material ejection channel
Fig. 12 Macrographs of spot weld performed at the same R600PD0.
4DT25WT15 and different plunge rates (a 5 mm/min, b 15 mm/min, c
25 mm/min, and d 35 mm/min)
parameters are kept as R600PD0.4DT25WT15. The joints
performed at low or high plunge rates show extrusion rings
together with cavity defects, as shown in Fig. 12a, d. A small
plunge rate indicates a longer frictional time, which results in
more heat generation. A high plunge rate usually leads to
increased shoulder compression. Then, frictional heat genera-
tion between the shoulder bottom and upper sheet surface is
highly enhanced. Therefore, in both cases, the under-shoulder
material can be softened and then be expelled out of the shoul-
der bottom to form rings. The nugget material is squeezed out
through the ejection channel produced by material extrusion,
which causes the formation of cavities. At PR15 and PR25,
well-formed joints with a smooth crown surface and a defect-
free nugget are produced, as shown in Fig. 12b, c. Through the
X marked at plunge rates of 5, 15, 25, and 35 mm in Fig. 12,
the corresponding A B values of 95.2, 93.4, 93.4, and
95.2 mm2, respectively, are calculated using Eq. 2. Low and
high plunge rates lead to more heat input, so that the corre-
sponding AB values are relatively larger and that a moderate
plunge rate is produced. However, the small variation of AB
towards the plunge rates infers that the dimension of the nug-
get is slightly affected by the plunge rate.
Four joints performed at the same R600PR15DT25WT15
but different plunge depths are chosen to investigate the influ-
ence of plunge depth on joint formation. As illustrated in
Fig. 13, the voids are clearly observed at PD0.2 but disap-
peared at PD0.4 and PD0.6. The morphological variance
Fig. 13 Macrographs of joints produced in R600PR15DT25WT15 and
different plunge depths (a 0.2 mm, b 0.4 mm, c 0.6 mm, and d 0.8 mm)

suggests that plunge depth has an important effect on the joint
morphology. Increased plunge depth leads to higher shoulder
compression, which is beneficial to the increase of heat intro-
duction and the reduction of weld shrinkage after material
solidification [31]. The joints performed at PD0.2, PD0.4,
and PD0.6 show smooth crown surface. However, an extru-
sion ring is formed around the shoulder when plunge depth
increases to 0.8 mm (see Fig. 13d). This can be explained by
two factors. On the one hand, heat input increases due to
higher pressure. On the other hand, higher pressure makes
material flow easier. Therefore, the softened material is easier
to be expelled at higher shoulder pressure, resulting in the
production of extrusion ring and also the leakage of nugget
material. Inevitably, a cavity defect is formed inside the nug-
get, as shown in Fig. 13d. The variation of nugget size towards
the plunge depth can be investigated by putting X of joints
made at PD0.2, PD0.4, PD0.6, and PD0.8 into Eq. 2. Then,
the corresponding AB values of 91.5, 93.4, 95.2, and 95.2 mm2
are obtained. AB increases from PD0.2 to PD0.6 and keeps
constant regardless of the further increase of plunge depth.
The increased AB can be explained by more heat generation
at larger compression. However, material extrusion at exces-
sive plunge depth causes the pressure to decrease and then
heat input reduces. So, AB keeps constant at higher plunge
depth. Similar to the results mentioned above, AB also varies
slightly towards the plunge depth, which indicates that plunge
depth has a negligible effect on nugget size.
The morphology of the spot weld is largely influenced by
dwell time, as can be confirmed by the morphological vari-
ance shown in Fig. 14. DT5 means a short frictional time
between the tool and material. Therefore, the heat input is
low and material flow is insufficient, which, in turn, causes
the formation of cavities inside the nugget, as shown in
Fig. 14a. Furthermore, a long crack is formed between HAZ
and SZ, as can be seen in Fig. 15, where the magnification of
the interface is revealed. With the extension of dwell time,
more frictional heat is introduced into the spot weld and the
flow of material is promoted. Then, the mixture of weld ma-
terial is enhanced and the cavity dimension is reduced, as
shown in Fig. 14b. Defect-free spot welds are produced at
DT25 and DT35, but extrusion ring and cavity defect are
observed at DT45, as illustrated in Fig. 14c–e. Long-time
friction between the tool and material means extreme heat
Fig. 14 Macrographs of joints
produced in
R600PR15PD0.4WT15 and
different dwell times (a 5 s, b 15 s,
c 25 s, d 35 s, and e 45 s)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 15 The magnification of the interface between the HAZ and SZ
(marked by square in Fig. 14a)
input. Under-shoulder material is softened and expelled out-
side the weld zone to form a ring. Meanwhile, the contact
between shoulder and workpiece becomes untight and then
the leakage of nugget material happens. A lack of enough
filler material results in the generation of cavity defect. Bilici
and Yükler [9] showed that the thickness of the bonded area
obviously increased with the extension of dwell time due to
more heat input. Similarly, the AB values of the joints pro-
duced at DT5, DT15, DT25, DT35, and DT45 are 91.5,
91.5, 93.4, 95.2, and 95.2 mm2, respectively, which shows
the increased tendency. However, the increase of AB towards
the dwell time is slight, which means dwell time has a negli-
gible effect on nugget size. Also, extreme dwell time cannot
lead to the consistent increase of AB owing to the decreased
shoulder pressure resulted from material extrusion and the
decreased material friction coefficient resulted from stronger
shear action.
The effect of waiting time on the weld formation can be
investigated by comparing the joint generated at different
waiting times, as shown in Fig. 16. Unlike the phenomenon
found by Bilici and Yükler [9], the welds produced with no or
short waiting time show convex crown appearances and big
cavities, as shown in Fig. 15a, b, respectively. When the tool
retracts immediately after stirring phase or retracts after a short
waiting time, the internal nugget material is still in colloidal
state with small Young’s modulus and is unable to resist the
retracting force the tool applied. So, the spot weld material is
easy to be pulled out and then the cavities are formed. As
waiting time increased, the weld material solidifies under the
Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 16 The cross section of the spot welds produced in R600PR15PD0.

4DT25 and different waiting times (a 0 s, b 5 s, c 10 s, and d 15 s)

shoulder compression. Therefore, the weld material is hard to

be pulled out and the convex crown surface is alleviated.
Cavities become small consequently, as shown in Fig. 16c.
A joint with smooth surface formation and defect-free nugget
is produced at WT15. Actually, solidifying under shoulder
compression can effectively restrict material shrinkage, which
avoids the generation of voids. Waiting time has a negligible
effect on the nominal AB because the X values of welds pro-
duced at WT0, WT5, WT10, and WT15 are all 11.7 mm.
Inappropriate welding conditions usually bring about cav-
ities throughout or near the bonded area or cracks between the
HAZ and SZ. Therefore, choosing appropriate parameters is
important in the welding process. Furthermore, AB is slightly
influenced by five welding parameters. However, it was re-
ported that the increase of nugget size can highly promote the
joint fracture load [8, 9]. Therefore, the following possible
actions can be taken to promote the joint strength: first, in-
creasing the revolve diameter of double pins properly; second,
reducing the volume of the keyholes; and third, adding exter-
nal additives to strengthen the joint, like Gao et al. [32, 33],
who added multiwalled carbon nanotubes into the weld and Fig. 17 a The cross sections. b The surface morphology. c The load
successfully increased the tensile strength and elongation of versus displacement curves of CNF mode and PNF mode (PNF pull
the joint. nugget failure, CNF cross nugget failure)

3.3 Effects of welding parameters on joint shear strength
(SS)
Lap-shear tensile tests were carried out to assess the quality of
the spot welds. Two kinds of fracture modes, namely cross
nugget failure (CNF) and pull nugget failure (PNF), were
observed in the test. Figure 17a, b reveals the cross section
and fracture surface morphology of two fracture modes. To
CNF mode, fracture occurs along the lapped surface and the
regions near the bonded area undergo plastic deformation.
Therefore, the cavity distribution mentioned above undoubt-
edly has a negative effect on the joint strength. To PNF, a
central part is pulled out from the upper sheet. Plastic defor-
mation occurs to both kinds of spot welds, but the joint failed
with CNF mode shows more obvious plastic deformation than
joints failed with PNF modes. This can also be confirmed
according to Fig. 17c, where the joint with PNF shows smaller
fracture displacement than the joint with CNF does. Also, the
curve of PNF reveals a steeper reduction of LT in the descend
stage than the curve of CNF does.
Table 3 lists the test results of the joints, including the
fracture modes, lap-shear tensile load (LT), the shear strength
(SS), and the fracture displacement. Most joints fracture with
CNF mode, and only welds R400PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 and
R600PR15PD0.4DT5WT15 fracture with PNF mode. By ob-
serving the morphology of two joints fractured with PNF
(Figs. 9a and 14a), it is reasonable to infer that the propagation
of cracks between the HAZ and SZ results in the pulling out of
the center region from the upper sheet. This results in lower LT
of joint R400PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 and R600PR15PD0.
4DT5WT15 compared with joints with CNF mode in general.
Furthermore, it is found that the spot welds with large LT
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Table 3 The lap-shear tensile test

results and the corresponding Spot welds Fracture LT (N) SS Displacement
shear strength of welds performed morphology (MPa) (mm)
in various welding conditions
Tool with double pins
R400PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 PNF 1956.3 – 11.7
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 2825.2 30.2 15.8
R800PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 2235.6 23.5 14.3
R1000PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 1106.8 11.6 11.9
R600PR5PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 2364.4 24.8 15.1
R600PR25PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 2732.1 29.3 16.6
R600PR35PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 2530.4 26.6 15.1
R600PR15PD0.2DT25WT15 CNF 2483.9 27.1 15.0
R600PR15PD0.6DT25WT15 CNF 2674.5 28.1 15.6
R600PR15PD0.8DT25WT15 CNF 2156.2 22.6 14.0
R600PR15PD0.4DT5WT15 PNF 1870.8 – 11.1
R600PR15PD0.4DT15WT15 CNF 2439.7 26.6 15.4
R600PR15PD0.4DT35WT15 CNF 2684.7 28.2 15.2
R600PR15PD0.4DT45WT15 CNF 2128.6 22.3 14.5
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT0 CNF 1094.2 11.7 10.5
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT5 CNF 1470.4 15.7 13.6
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT10 CNF 1890.1 20.2 15.3
Tool with cylindrical pin
R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 CNF 593.5 18.1 3.8

PNF pull nugget failure, CNF cross nugget failure

usually show high fracture displacement and vice versa. The
LT and fracture displacement of the spot weld produced by a
cylindrical pin at R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15 are 593.5 N
and 3.8 mm, respectively, as listed in the last two rows of
Table 3, which are much smaller than the joint made by the
double-pin tool (2825.2 N and 15.8 mm, respectively) at the
same welding condition. According to Eq. 3, the shear strength
of joints fractured with CNF modes is calculated. The maximum
SS of 30.2 MPa is produced at R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15,
which is about 58.4% of the base material. The reduction of
molecular weight, the absorption of water, as well as the gener-
ation of residual stress inside the joint are three possible factors to
the reduction of the joint shear strength.
Figure 18 shows effect diagrams of five welding parame-
ters on joint shear strength (SS). Figure 18a reveals the effect
of rotational speed on SS. All the joint strengths are smaller
than the strength of the base material. The maximum SS of
30.2 MPa is obtained at R600, and SS decreases with the
increase of rotational speed. This variance can be explained
as below. First, the dimension of the cavity that resulted from
the extrusion of nugget material (as explained above) in-
creases with the increase of rotational speed (Fig. 9c, d).
Meanwhile, residual stress concentration may exist around
the cavity [26], which results in the decrease of S S .
Furthermore, molecular weight may be further lowered due
to stronger mechanical scission of molecular chains at higher
rotational speed [34]. Also, it was reported that higher
rotational speeds resulted in increased residual stress [35],
thus leading to the further weakening of the joint strength.
Figure 18b presents the effect diagram of plunge rates on
SS. Apparently, joints performed at PR5 and PR35 have low
SS due to the cavity formation at these two welding conditions
(Fig. 12a, d). SS values of the joints performed at PR15 and
PR25 are relatively high because they are well formed without
defects (Fig. 12c, d). Joints performed in different plunge rates
show smaller strength compared with the base material due to
the defect formation, water absorption, molecular weight re-
duction, or residual stress generation. The variance of SS to-
wards plunge rate is small compared with Fig. 18a, which
indicates that plunge rate has a smaller effect on the joint
strength than rotational speed.
The effect of plunge depth on joint shear strength can be
investigated through Fig. 18c. In order to study the effect of
plunge depth independently, all spot welds are produced with
the same R600PR15DT25WT15. With the increase of plunge
depth, joint SS increases first and then decreases. Insufficient
heat is generated due to small shoulder pressure at low plunge
depth [31]. Therefore, a weld material is poorly softened and
mixed, resulting in the void generation (Fig. 13a). Defect-free
joints with similar AB are obtained at PD0.4 and PD0.6
(Fig. 13b, c), but the joint SS decreases from PD0.4 to
PD0.6. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that
high plunge depth results in excessive shoulder pressure and
more heat input, which lead to the fragment of molecular
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 18 Effects of a rotational
speed, b plunge rate, c plunge
depth, d dwell time, and e waiting
time on the joint shear strength
chains [34]. The further decrease of SS at PD0.8 can be easily
explained by the presence of cavity (Fig. 13d) and the residual
stress concentration around the cavity [26].
The influence of dwell time on the joint SS is illustrated in
Fig. 18d. In this experiment, only dwell time is allowed to
change. SS increases from DT15 to DT25 and then decreases
with the prolongation of dwell time. The maximum SS is 30.2
MP, which is lower than the strength of the base material.
Voids, the main cause to the weakening of joint SS, are gener-
ated due to inadequate frictional heat generation as well as
insufficient material mixing at DT15 (as shown in Fig. 14b).
Long dwell time can promote the heat input and material
mixture, but extreme dwell time causes material extrusion
and the generation of cavity (as shown in Fig. 14d), which
results in the reduction of joint strength. In addition, a molec-
ular weight decrease due to mechanical scission of molecular
chains at excessive dwell time may be another factor to the
strength reduction. It can also explain why joint SS undergoes
a decrease from DT25 to DT35 although no defect is formed
in both joints.
Figure 18e presents the plot about the influence of waiting
time on joint SS. The joint strength increases with the exten-
sion of waiting time. This can be explained by the modifica-
tion of joint morphology with longer waiting time, as can be
observed in Fig. 16. Weld material has completely solidified at
WT15, and a further increase of waiting time is unnecessary
and is not beneficial to the welding efficiency.
4 Conclusions
The feasibility of UFSSW of MC901 sheets by the double-pin
tool was demonstrated in the present research. A gasket with
the diameter of 9.6 mm and the thickness of 2 mm were added
between two sheets to improve weld formation. The effect of
rotational speed, plunge rate, plunge depth, dwell time, and

waiting time on joint formation and joint strength was inves-
tigated. The conclusions can be summarized as follows:
– Extrusion rings that resulted from material extrusion were
usually generated at high rotational speed, large or small
plunge rate, high plunge depth, and long dwell time.
– The extrusion of under-shoulder material usually resulted
in untight touch between the shoulder bottom and work-
piece surface as well as the formation of ejection channel,
which led to the loss of nugget material and the formation
of cavities throughout or near the bonded area.
– The areas of the bonded areas were slightly affected by
the variation of welding parameters.
– Two fracture modes, namely cross nugget failure and pull
nugget failure, were observed in the lap-shear tests. Joints
fractured with cross nugget failure mode generally
showed larger tensile load and fracture displacement than
joints fractured with pull nugget failure mode.
– The joint with the maximum lap-shear tensile load of
2825.2 N was produced at R600PR15PD0.4DT25WT15,
which was much larger than the joint made by the tool with
a conventional cylindrical pin at the same welding
conditions.
– With the increase of four welding parameters except
waiting time, the joint strength increased first and then
decreased; waiting time had a positive effect on the weld
formation and strength.
– The maximum shear strength of the joints performed by
the double-pin tool was 30.2 MPa, which was about
58.4% of the strength of the base material.
Acknowledgments This study work was supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51475232). This was
also a project founded by the Priority Academic Program Development of
Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
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