Friction welding of combat vehicles at TWI

By Stephan Kallee and Dave Nicholas

All friction welding of metals is conducted in the solid phase, i.e. below the melting point of the
workpieces. This results in high integrity joints with very high strength, especially when being
tested using ballistic impact tests. TWI can conduct confidential feasibility studies, parameter
development and optimisation, on-site consulting and operator training for companies that want
to apply friction welding in the manufacture or repair of armour vehicles or tanks, mobile
bridges, munitions and missiles. Examples of projects in which the military industry used the
expertise of TWI's Friction and Forge Welding Technology Group can be summarised as
follows:

• Friction stir welding, FSW, can be used for the manufacture of lightweight military
tanks that are manufactured from high strength aluminium alloys. TWI engineers recently
visited several army suppliers in the USA and UK and provided consultancy on specific
joint designs. Some of the existing joints that have been developed for MIG welding have
to be re-designed to apply the friction stir welding process. On-site operator training
using existing milling machines of US tank manufacturers has been conducted, and the
process was successfully demonstrated to designers, production engineers and
management of manufacturers of aluminium tanks. The process is being considered for
the following applications:

 Lightweight tanks from aluminium alloys or aluminium based metal matrix

composites (MMCs)
 Military bridges and amphibious personnel carriers
 Steel tanks that could be friction stir welded from extra high strength armour plate
using two passes from two sides after further tool and parameter development
 Titanium lightweight field howitzers
 Whorl FSW tool in front of a section taken
from weld in 75mm thick AA 6082-T6

• A second generation of Whorl TM friction stir welding tools has been developed on
TWI's Core Research Programme. These FSW tools have sophisticated profiles on the
pin and shoulder and are made from wear resistant materials. Aluminium alloys of up to
50mm thickness can be welded in one pass. Thicker plates, with up to 75mm thickness,
are typically welded in two passes from both sides. The benefits are as follows:

 Very encouraging tensile, fatigue, deformability and ballistic impact properties

 No joint preparation is necessary, even when butt welding 75mm thick plates
 The welding speeds are higher than those of mechanised MIG welding when
welding plates of more than 10mm thickness
 Low distortion and high reproducibility

• Rotary and linear friction welding can be used for joining high-strength or wear
resistant alloys, as they are used in military high-performance applications. The rotary
friction welding process can be exploited for the following applications:

 Track rollers for tracked vehicles

 Bimetallic tipping of projectiles and armour piercing shells
 Machine gun barrel liners
 Fuse liners (e.g. joining of thin-wall deep-drawn canisters to thick-wall tubular
rings)
 Friction surfacing of a cylindrical part

• Friction surfacing can be used for depositing corrosion resistant layers on high-strength
aluminium alloys. Modern aluminium alloys, which are now being considered for the
manufacture of aluminium tanks have often insufficient corrosion properties, and need
cladding to fulfil the demands of the army.

• Radial friction welding has been developed for the attachment of driving bands to
artillery shells. For this application, a gilding metal ring is compressed onto the outer
diameter of a rotating steel shell. The weld time is approximately 15 seconds. The joint
quality can be assessed by ultrasonic inspection using P-scan.

• Friction stud welding procedures have been developed for military rockets. The studs
are used to keep the solid fuel of the rocket in place and maintain distance between the
shells of the rocket.

Further information about friction stir welding (FSW) can be accessed via the following link:

FSW - Introduction
FSW - Process Advantages
FSW - Materials and Thicknesses
FSW - Superior Weld Quality
FSW - Joint Geometries
FSW - Applications
FSW - Equipment
FSW - Symposia: First 1999 , Second 2000, Third 2001, Fourth 2003
FSW - Intellectual Property Rights
Friction surfacing onto ceramics
A radical new advance in friction surfacing has been
invented at TWI.

For years friction surfacing has been used to apply a

metal coating onto a metal substrate. TWI has now
pioneered the deposition of metal coatings onto ceramic
substrates, a process previously considered impossible.

An aluminium consumable some 3mm in diameter is

rotated at many thousands of revolutions per minute while it is pressed against a wafer-thin
ceramic substrate. Once the aluminium is known to be plastic, at approximately 300°C, the
rotating consumable is traversed across a ceramic token under sustained pressure.

TWI has laid tracks of aluminium less than 50µm thickness onto an alumina substrate. It is a
solid phase process. No melting takes place, only plasticising of the material.

From examination of highly magnified cross sections of the joints between the aluminium and
the ceramic there is some evidence of mechanical keying taking place. But from adhesion tests it
is also evident that excellent bond strengths are achievable.

Although total failure eventually ensues, it occurs at the adhesive joint, rather than between the
aluminium coating and the substrate.

'Clearly, there are more questions than answers just now' says project leader Abbas Mirlashari.
'What we can say for sure is that it works, and has enormous potential in several disparate
technologies. The key thing to identify first is the range of consumables that you can put onto
these substrates. We know for instance that it also works for aluminum nitride and silicon
carbide substrates, and the technique can be used to lay copper tracks.'

Friction surfacing is a unique way of metallising ceramics. Potential uses include heat sinking
applications on temperature sensitive substrates, and as tracks for providing electrical
conductivity.

Future work at TWI will explore a range of deposition materials and substrates now possible.
'The technology offers huge potential in thermal management for electronics, medical and
automotive industries and we are keen to exploit this' said Mirlashari.

To explore what the technique can achieve for your business, contact ceramics@twi.co.uk
Published on the Internet 3 April 2006

Transition joints between dissimilar

materials
By W M Thomas, D J Staines, I M Norris, S A Westgate and C S Wiesner Print version
TWI Ltd
Granta Park (pdf file
Great Abington 725kB)
Cambridge
CB1 6AL
United Kingdom

1. Introduction

Dissimilar metal and composite-to-metal transition joints present difficult design challenges if
there is a requirement to achieve high levels of integrity. Traditionally, this has meant that
designers have been reluctant to incorporate such joints in their designs, unless extremely
conservative measures are taken or where there are no alternatives.
TM
1.1. Dissimilar metal joints using stir-lock

Currently, there is great interest in joining magnesium, steel, titanium and copper to aluminium
alloys. The joining of aluminium superstructures to steel-hulled ships, automotive components,
for instance steel to aluminium tailor-welded blanks, as well as many aerospace applications
require improved solutions to dissimilar metal joints.

The following describes preliminary studies being carried out on dissimilar metal and composite-
to-metal transition joints at TWI. The Stir-lockTM technique presented has the capability of
producing transition joints from sheet and plate material between a number of dissimilar
materials by the use of discreet through-holes that have re-entrant features.

Stir-lock TM is an 'in-process' forge/forming seam joining technique. One side of the Stir-lock TM
joint can be compared with riveting, whereby a rivet head is formed into a countersunk hole, for
example, to provide a mechanical interlock between two or more plates. The countersunk holes
are made in the comparatively harder sheet or plate material. However, the material that forms
the interlock or 'rivet head', remains integrally part of the comparatively softer, more easily
formable sheet or plate material. The Stir-lock TM technique can also be applied to any perforated
material. Figure 1 shows a possible application for steel-to-aluminium joining in a T-joint
configuration.
 Fig.1. Stir-lock TM technique
for joining dissimilar metals

Demonstration examples of steel to aluminium transition joints are shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Fig.2. Double sided transition joint showing hole

cross-section

Fig.3. Single sided, Stir-lock TM aluminium-to-steel transition joint

a) Friction treated near-side, continuous weld track

 b) Far-side showing aluminium extruded into re-
entrant holes

A simple tensile test on initial samples showed promising results and failed in the steel along the
line of holes. In this respect, the joint can be designed to fail in the steel or in the aluminium
material, depending on the hole pattern.
TM
1.2. Composite transition joints using Stir-lock

Transition joints between metals and composite materials are also becoming increasingly
important in the aerospace, marine and automotive industries. Using the Stir-lock TM technique,
reinforcement transition joints can also be produced for composite/metal applications. Figure 4
shows a stainless steel mesh joined to aluminium sheets by friction. The mesh provides a
skeleton reinforcement for the application of resin based, polymer or rubber materials. This
technique differs from other transition jointing techniques in that the reinforcement itself can
provide a degree of flexibility, which can be important for certain applications eg for
polyurethane or rubber-to-metal composite applications, where appropriate compliance and
flexibility is required.

Fig.4. Stainless steel mesh reinforcement joined to

aluminium sheets by the Stir-lock TM technique

Peel tests were carried out on initial welded samples, which showed that the mesh was
substantially joined to the aluminium sheet material. Figures 5a and b show the mode of failure
of the peel tested sample in which both the aluminium sheet material and stainless steel mesh
have undergone significant deformation prior to joint failure. The results of test show that the
weld region remained attached to one side of the sheet, and pulled material out of the other sheet.

Fig.5. Transition joint between stainless steel mesh and aluminium sheets
a) Weld region pull-out with embedded and b) Weld region attached with some
part ruptured mesh embedded mesh

1.3. Resistance welded composite reinforcement

Resistance welding processes can also be used to join sheet to mesh and this is a common
method for joining filter or sieve meshes, for example. Spot seam or projection welding can be
used, depending on the size and form of the component to be made. Although the mesh can be
welded directly to sheet or other solid forms, there is a tendency to cause some damage to the
mesh with this approach, and electrode wear can be severe. Consequently, the best way to join
mesh is often to use a cover sheet and encapsulate the mesh. Figure 6 shows examples of
stainless steel mesh welded to 1mm low carbon steel sheet with a 12mm wide cover strip.

Fig.6. Skeletal reinforcement transition joint produced by resistance welding, viewed from
cover strip side
a) Diagonal mesh alignment b) Square mesh alignment
Spot welds were used in this case and a fused nugget is formed between the sheet and cover
strip, fusing-in the mesh at the same time. It is possible to weld the sheet to two meshes using
two cover strips in one operation. An example is shown in Fig.7.

Fig.7. Skeletal reinforcement transition joint

produced by resistance welding for a composite-
to-metal T joint

Different forms of material, such as perforated metal or other non-solid forms, could be welded
as an alternative to mesh. Furthermore, different steels, uncoated and coated could be welded,
depending on the application and other weldable materials could also be considered. Resistance
welding processes are ideally placed to produce skeletal reinforcement structures for
composite/metal transition joints.

2. Discussion and concluding remarks

In-process forging, forming, embossing and mechanical joining of seam joints by friction
techniques are well known. [1-5] More recently a friction stir spot welding method has been used
to fill individual holes by a series of one-by-one separate FSW spot welds in order to provide a
series of mechanical locks. [4] The Stir-lock TM technique differs from the latter because it can fill
individual holes along a common seam in a continuous and uninterrupted manner.

Transition joints between dissimilar materials and composite materials are frequently required in
a range of demanding engineering structures and are of growing importance for many
applications. The use of structural composites provide the opportunity for reduction in the weight
of structures provided that the transition joints are able to transfer stresses homogeneously and in
such a manner as to achieve the required design life.

Initial investigation of transition joints has demonstrated the potential of using friction
techniques for producing mechanical joints between dissimilar metals and skeletal reinforcement
for composite materials. In addition, resistance welding provides a useful method of joining
mesh to sheet to form a transition and skeletal reinforcement that would allow the joining of
polymer, rubber or composites to metals.

Further work at TWI is being undertaken to investigate the following:

TM
• The advantage of the Stir-lock technique for composite/metal and
dissimilar metal joining
 • The development of the resistance welding and other fusion welding
techniques for manufacture of skeleton reinforcement for composite/metal
joining
• The development of suitable skeleton reinforcement for substantially flexible
rubber/metal joints

3. Acknowledgements

P J Oakley, F C Smith, P L Bryant and C Spence

4. References

1. Thomas W M, and Nicholas E D: 'Friction surfacing advances' TWI Connect,

March 1991.
2. Thomas W M: 'Friction Stir Welding and Related Friction Process
Characteristics', INALCO 1998 7th International Conference, Joints in
Aluminium, Cambridge, UK 16 th April 1998.
3. Kallee W S, Nicholas E D, and Thomas WM: 'Friction Stir welding - Invention
Innovations and Applications' INALCO 2001 8 th International Conference,
Joints in Aluminium, Munich, Germany, 28-30 March 2001.
4. Okamoto K, Hirano S, Inagaki M, and Aono Y: 'Method of joining Metallic
Materials', International patent US 6,843,405 B2, Filed Feb, 5 th 2003.
5. Mishiza R S: 'Friction Stir Processing Technologies', Advanced Materials &
Processes, pp.43-45, October 2003.

Last Reviewed 2006 / Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd