A

Seminar Report On
CHARACTERIZATION OF TOOL WEAR IN SIMILAR
AND DISIMILAR JOINTS OF MS AND SS USING
EAFSW
Submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the award of the degree of

BACHELOR of TECHNOLOGY

In

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Submitted by

A. PRASANNA KUMAR 19X05A0301

Under the Esteemed Guidance of

Mrs D. KRISHNAVENI M. Tech
Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE
(APPROVED BY AICTE, AFFILIATED TO JNTU, HYDERABAD)
AN UGC AUTONOMUS INSTITUTION
Sy No.518, Maisammaguda (V), Kompally - 500100, Secunderabad.
(2018-2022)

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF MECH

 NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE
(APPROVED BY AICTE, AFFILIATED TO JNTU, HYDERABAD)
AN UGC AUTONOMUS INSTITUTION
Maisammaguda(V), Kompally- 500100, Secunderabad.

(2018-2022)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Seminar report entitled CHARACTERIZATION OF TOOL WEAR
IN SIMILAR AND DISIMILAR JOINTS OF MS AND SS USING EAFSW is being done by
A. PRASANNA KUMAR 19X05A0301, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of
Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from JNTUH. Record of bonafide work
carried out by them during the year 2021-2022. The content of the report has not been submitted to
any other University/Institution for the award of any degree.

Submitted for viva-voce examination held on

Internal Guide Head of the Department

D. KRISHNAVENI M.Tech Dr K. POLI REDDY PhD
Assistant Professor Professor & HOD

Internal Examiner External Examiner

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is immense pleasure that we would like to express our indebted gratitude to our guide
Mrs. D. Krishnaveni Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering who
has guided us a lot and encouraged us in this Seminar. A valuable moral support and
guidance throughout the seminar helped us to a greater extent.
At the same time, we feel elated to thank our Head of the Mechanical
Engineering Department Dr K. Poli Reddy Professor & HOD for inspiring us all the way
and arranging all the facilities and resources needed for our Seminar.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our beloved Principal Dr. P. Shekar
Babu for providing a great support for us in completing our Seminar and giving us the
opportunity of Presenting the seminar.
We sincerely thank our Management, Sri. Jakkula Narsimha Reddy
Garu for providing all the facilities and infrastructure in the college. We also thank the
teaching and non-teaching staff of our department for their timely suggestions and our
family and friends who have directly or indirectly helped and supported us in completing
our seminar in time.
 DECLARATION
We are undersigned, hereby declare that the Seminar report entitled “CHARACTERIZATION
OF TOOL WEAR IN SIMILAR AND DISIMILAR JOINTS OF MS AND SS USING
EAFSW” is my original work written and submitted by us in fulfilment of pass of B. Tech IV
Year I semester at NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE. We also declare that
this seminar has not been presented earlier in any other University or Institution.

B. PRASANNA KUMAR - 19X05A0301

 ABSTRACT

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) faces many issues while joining high strength material. In this study
an external secondary heat source from a DC source kept at 4 V supply has been used to in
between the tool and the workpiece to give an external heat source to FSW and use the method as
Electrically Assisted Friction Stir Welding (EAFSW) process. This study represents analysis of
mechanical properties of Mild steel (MS) and Stainless-Steel (SS) joint, made by both FSW and
EAFSW. An effect of the secondary heat source of electric energy on the mechanical property of
the joint and to the tool wear while joining similar and dissimilar material of MS and SS has also
been studied. The study represented the effect of the addition of a secondary heat source of an
electric current heating to FSW and the impact of various process parameters like tool rpm and
feed on the tool wear.Th experimentation has proved the suitability of Tungsten Carbide as tool
material for joining high strength material such as MS and SS. It has also been observed that with
suitable utilization of process parameters and secondary heat sources, the heat at the nugget zone
increases causing better mixing of the nugget zone. Due to a generation of higher heat at the
nugget zone, less tangential and radial load occurs at the tool pin resulting less tool wear and
better tool life.
 CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.
CHAPTER-1 1-2
Introduction
1.1 Friction Stir Welding(FSW)
1.2 Electric Assisted Friction Stir Welding (EAFSW)
1.3. Advantages of Eafsw
1.4 Limitations of Eafsw
1.5 Applications of Eafsw
1.6 Tungsten Carbide (Wc) Tool
CHAPTER-2 3
Literature Review
CHAPTER-3 4-6
Study Of Tungsten Carbide(Wc)Tool Wear
3.1 Experimental Setup
3.2 Design Of Experiment (Doe)
3.3 Study Of Tool Wear For Mild Steel Welded Joints
3.4 Study Of Tool Wear For Mild Steel-Stainless Steel Welded Joints
3.5 Tool Condition After Joining Of Similar And Dissimilar Materials With And Without
application of current
CHAPTER-4 7-8
Result&Conclusion
4.1 Result
4.2 Conclusion
 LIST OF FIGURES

DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.

Figure 1:Friction Stir Welding 1

Figure 2: Tungsten Carbide tool 2
Figure3: Welding speed vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel joints without current. 5
Figure 4: Tool’s rotational speed vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel joints without current. 5
Figure 5: Plot of input process parameter vs % of tool wear for mild steel joints. 5
Figure 6: Tool speed vs % of tool wear for mild steel-stainless steel joints without current. 6
Figure 7: Welding speed vs % of tool wear for mild steel-stainless steel joints without current 6
Figure 8: Process input parameter vs % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints
with EAFSW 6
Figure 9: Tool condition after joining mild steel before and after applying current 7
Figure 10: Tool condition after joining mild steel-stainless steel before and after applying
current 7
 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 FRICTION STIR WELDING(FSW)

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that uses a non-consumable
tool to join two facing workpieces without melting the workpiece material. Heat is generated by
friction between the rotating tool and the workpiece material, which leads to a softened region
near the FSW tool. While the tool is traversed along the joint line, it mechanically intermixes the
two pieces of metal, and forges the hot and softened metal by the mechanical pressure, which is
applied by the tool, much like joining clay, or dough. It is primarily used on wrought or
extruded aluminium and particularly for structures which need very high weld strength. FSW is
capable of joining aluminium alloys, copper alloys, titanium alloys, mild steel, stainless steel and
magnesium alloys. More recently, it was successfully used in welding of polymers. In addition,
joining of dissimilar metals, such as aluminium to magnesium alloys, has been recently achieved
by FSW. Application of FSW can be found in modern shipbuilding, trains, and aerospace
applications.

Figure 1:Friction Stir Welding

1.2 Electric Assisted Friction Stir Welding (EAFSW)

Electric Assisted Friction Stir Welding (EAFSW) is one of the hybrids FSW techniques, which is
used to join low and high strength material. In EAFSW, ohmic heating is used by an application of
electric current between the tool and the work piece, which in turns generates a heat to assist the
joining process
EAFSW was successfully used to join low and high strength material and also for joining low to
high strength material with suitable process parameters.

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE 1 DEPARTMENT OF MECH

1.3 ADVANATAGES OF EAFSW
 It reduces tool wear compared to FSW process.
 It increases weld efficiency.
 We can use this process for both similar and dissimilar materials.
1.4 DISADVANTAGES OF EAFSW
 High initial cost and setup cost.
 It creates a visible hole in welding plates.
 Non forgeable material cannot be weld.
1.5APPLICATIONS OF EAFSW
 It can be used to join low and high strength material .
 Ship building industries.
 Aerospace
 Robotics
 General Fabrication
1.6 TUNGSTEN CARBIDE(WC) TOOL
In this Report, it has been focused to know the tool wear while joining high strength material by a
WC tool. The tool design used as cylindrical plane with flat head.

Figure 2: Tungsten Carbide tool

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE 2 DEPARTMRNT OF MECH

 CHAPTER-3

LITERATURE REVIEW

 Thomas et al. (1991) [1] of The Welding Institute (TWI) reviewed the problem using fusion
welding of Aluminium alloy. By using Friction Stir Welding (FSW), the formation of surface
oxides in the base material is avoided. FSW uses non consumable tool which produces heat
by friction effect of the base material which results in joining of metal.
 Lohwasser (2009) suggested that two types of material flows are possible in FSW such as pin
driven flow and shoulder driven flow. The formation of oxide layer affects the firm bonding
of material. This oxide layer formation is prevented in FSW by using tool shoulder. The
approximate working temperature for FSW is 0.6 to 0.9 times of melting temperature.
 Cavaliere et al (2006) investigated the tensile and fatigue behavior of FSW of 2024 and 7075
alloys. It was found that 2024 fails in tensile test due to lower hardness and 7075 fails due to
decreased fatigue life.
 Lee et al (2003) made study based on the joint properties of dissimilar cast A356 and wrought
AA6061 by varying the fixed location of materials. While doing the longitudinal tensile tests,
and absorbed that the stir zone strength for AA6061 is greater than A356 when placed on the
retreating side.
 Leitao et al (2009) studied mechanical behavior on dissimilar joints of AA5182-H111 and
AA60616-T4 and found that the tensile strength of the joints mainly dependent on the grain
size for AA5182-H111. It is studied A319 and A413 and reported that there is a loss of
ductility in the welded joint.
 Koilraj et al (2012) optimized FSW process with respect to the tensile strength of the
dissimilar welds AA2219 and AA5083 using five different tool profiles such as rotational
speed, Transverse speed and D/d ratio where D= shoulder diameter and d= tool pin diameter
are the parameters considered for the study.

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE 3 DEPARTMRNT OF MECH

 CHAPTER-4

STUDY OF TUNGSTEN CARBIDE(WC)TOOL WEAR

3.1 Experimental setup
1.Universal milling machine with a designed tool and fixture
2.Tool holder and provision to supply an electric current between the tool and the workpiece
3. Tungsten-Carbide (WC) tool was attached to the milling machine with the help of a
manufactured tool holder.
4.DC Electric supply (in this experiment, we have to provide 4 V supply with three set of
electric current of the values 50, 100 and 150 Amps.

3.2 Design of experiment (DOE)

As Taguchi method provides study and analysis of the results of many input parameters with
a small number of experiments, a three level two input parameters L9 orthogonal DOE used for
the set of experiments with FSW and a three level three input parameter, DOE has been used
for the experiments for EAFSW. As the traversing speed affects the frictional force which are
responsible to generate heat for the required stirring in the nugget zone and also as the
secondary heat by electric current affect the traversing forces, the process parameters have
been chosen to be tool rpm, weld speed and current.

3.3 Study of tool wear for mild steel welded joints

 From below Fig. 3, We can observe that the tool wear increased with the weld speed.

 Similarly, from Fig. 4, as tool revolution increases, the percentage of tool wear decreases.

 Wear rate found maximum when tool rotation was at 500 rpm and minimum at 1050 rpm with
constant welding speed. So, it has been understood that when tool rotational speed was at 500
rpm the tool probe needed more pressure for plunging into welding plate for that tool wear was
more.

 But as the tool rotational speed increased the force needed for plunging was quite less, so the
tool wear got minimized. But when we increased welding speed tool wear increased because
the tool pin needed more force to cut the material. Due to that reason higher welding speed, so
the tool wear increased. But in a lower welding speed tool probe got sufficient time to cut the
material. The reaction force generated by the welding plate has been reduced, so the tool wear
rate minimized.

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE 4 DEPARTMRNT OF MECH

 Figure3: Welding speed vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel joints without current.

Figure 4: Tool’s rotational speed vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel joints without current.

Figure 5: Plot of input process parameter vs % of tool wear for mild steel joints.

 From Fig.5 it has been clearly observed that after using current as an extra heat input, the tool
wear rate decreased. It has also been observed that the trend of the percentage of tool wear
increasing or decreasing was almost same for both with and without an application of current. It
has been assumed that the tool wear rate decreased due to current applied because extra heat
input applied in the welding zone. For that extra heat, the material in the welding zone
softened, so the pressure created on the tool pin and tool shoulder decreased than the
conventional FSW process.

NARSIMHA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE 5 DEPARTMRNT OF MECH

 3.4Study of tool wear for mild steel-stainless steel welded joints

 The effect of tool wear with tool rotational speed and welding speed given by Fig. 5 and
Fig. 6 respectively.
 From the Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, we can observe that the tool wear rate decreased as tool
rotational speed has been increased and the tool wear rate increased when welding speed
increased. The reason was the same for both similar and dissimilar joints, which have been
discussed earlier.

Figure 6: Tool speed vs % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints without current.

Figure 7: Welding speed vs % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints without current

Figure 8: . Process input parameter vs % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints with EAFSW
 From Fig.8, it has been seen that the tool wear rate was less when current was applied. The trend
of tool wear, increasing or decreasing, was same for both similar and dissimilar welding for
application or without application of current. But, in case of joining mild steel with stainless
steel, stainless was comparatively harder than mild steel. That’s why the tool wear rate for the
dissimilar joint was more.
3.5 TOOL CONDITION AFTER JOINING OF SIMILAR AND
DISIMILAR MATERILAS WITH AND WITHOUT APPLICATION OF
CURRENT

 From figure 7&8, we can observe that damage of tool was quite less with application of
current when compared to without application of current because of the addition of extra
heat source softened the material and helped the tool to cut the material easily.
 While joining of dissimilar materials from figure 8, it was seen that the damage of the tool
pin was more for dissimilar joints rather than similar joints which is in fig 7.

Figure 9: Tool condition after joining mild steel before and after applying current

Figure 10: Tool condition after joining mild steel-stainless steel before and after applying current
 CHAPTER-4

RESULT & CONCLUSION

4.1 RESULT
 For similar and dissimilar FSW welding tool wear rate has been found maximum at high
welding speed of 24 mm/min with 500 rpm and minimum at 1050 rpm with low welding
speed 11 mm/min for both FSW and EAFSW.
 It has also been found that in a conventional FSW process for similar mild steel material tool
wear rate was 0.19% and minimum tool wear rate was 0.07% and with EAFSW maximum
tool wear rate and minimum tool wear rate decreased to 0.18% and 0.06% respectively.
 The maximum and minimum tool wear rate for dissimilar material in conventional FSW was
0.21% and 0.09% respectively. But after applying electrical current the maximum and
minimum tool wear rate decreased to 0.19% and 0.07%, respectively.
4.2 CONCLUSION
From the study and analysis of the joint made by similar and dissimilar joint along with the
study of tool wear property following observations has been concluded:
 In both similar and dissimilar material joint, it can be said that by an addition of secondary
heat by electric energy, i.e. by EAFSW process, the tool wear less than that with FSW.
 Due to higher welding speed and low heat generation, the tangential and radial load on the
tool was higher, resulting the tool to wear out at a higher rate. Whereas in case of a low
welding speed and high rpm, higher heat generated in the nugget zone. Also, on addition of
secondary heat by electric current the generation of heat increased. This caused ease in
stirring action of the material beneath the tool, and also the tangential and radial load on the
tool decreased which resulted in low tool wear.
 REFERENCES

1. W.A. Ferrando, ‘‘The concept of Electrically Assisted Friction Stir Welding (EAFSW)
and Application to the processing of various metals”, 2008.
2. K. Sengupta, D.K. Singh, A.K. Mondal, D. Bose, B. Ghosh, Analysis of mechanical
property of electrically assisted friction stir welding to enhance the efficiency of the
joints, Mater. Today Proceed. (2020).
3. X. Liu, S. Lan, J. Ni, electrically assisted friction stir welding for joining Al 6061 to
TRIP 780 steel, J. Mater. Proceed. Technol. (2015).
4. D.K. Singh, K. Sengupta, S. Karmakar, A.K. Mondal, D. Bose, Effect of different tool
pin diameter on mechanical properties of friction stirred welded AISI 304 stainless steel
plate, Mater. Today Proceed. (2020).
5. Bist, J.S. Saini, B. Sharma, A review of tool wear prediction during friction stir welding
of aluminium matrix composite, Trans. Nonferrous Metals Soc. China (2016).
6. P. Sahlot, K. Jha, G.K. Dey, A. Arora, Quantitative wear analysis of H13 steel tool
during friction stir welding of Cu-0.8% Cr-0.1% Zr alloy, Wear 378 (2017) 82– 89.
7. T.Prater, C.Cox, B.Gibson, A.Strauss, G. Cook, ‘‘Dimensional analysis and a potential
classification algorithm for tool wear in friction stir welding of metal matrix composites”,
Proceed. Instit. Mech. Eng. Sci., Vol. 11, pp.2759-2769, 2012.
8. K.L.T. Sui, An overview of Taguchi method and newly developed statistical methods for
robust design, Instit. Ind. Eng. Trans. 24 (1992) 44–56.
 JOURNAL

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Characterization of tool wear in similar and dissimilar joints of MS and

SS using EAFSW
Kaushik Sengupta ⇑, Dilip K. Singh, Arpan K. Mondal ⇑, D. Bose, Debtanu Patra, Arindam Dhar
National Institute of Technical Teacher’s Training and Research, Fourth Ave, FC Block, Sector III, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700106, India

articleinfo
abstract
Article history:
Friction Stir Welding (FSW) faces many issues while joining high strength material. In this study an exter-
Received 5 September 2020
Received in revised form 24 nal secondary heat source from a DC source kept at 4 V supply has been used to in between the tool and
September 2020 the workpiece to give an external heat source to FSW and use the method as Electrically Assisted Friction
Accepted 2 October 2020 Stir Welding (EAFSW) process. This study represents analysis of mechanical properties of Mild steel (MS)
Available online xxxx and Stainless-Steel (SS) joint, made by both FSW and EAFSW. An effect of the secondary heat source of
electric energy on the mechanical property of the joint and to the tool wear while joining similar and dis-
Keywords: similar material of MS and SS has also been studied. The study represented the effect of the addition of a
Electric Assisted Friction Stir secondary heat source of an electric current heating to FSW and the impact of various process parameters
Welding Mild steel like tool rpm and feed on the tool wear. The results have been shown to express an expected tool life of
Stainless steel WC tool material for joining mild steel and stainless steel. Th experimentation has proved the suitability
UTS
of Tungsten Carbide as tool material for joining high strength material such as MS and SS. It has also been
Tool wear
observed that with suitable utilization of process parameters and secondary heat sources, the heat at the
nugget zone increases causing better mixing of the nugget zone. Due to a generation of higher heat at the
nugget zone, less tangential and radial load occurs at the tool pin resulting less tool wear and better tool
life.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Advances in Materials Processing & Manufacturing Applications.

1. Introduction
Friction Stir Welding (FSW) used successfully for joining low
strength material but faces many problems like tool wear, lack in
weld efficiency, etc. To resolve such problems, many hybrid FSW
techniques has come up with secondary heat sources added to
FSW like Laser, induction heat, plasma, electric, etc. The secondary
heat source increases heating effect at the stir zone thereby gener-
ating sufficient heat to join the material. Electric Assisted Friction
Stir Welding (EAFSW) is one of the hybrid FSW techniques, which
may be used to join low and high strength material [1]. In EAFSW,
ohmic heating is used by an application of electric current between
the tool and the work piece, which in turns generates a heat to
assist the joining process [1,2]. It has also been seen that the joint
prepared by EAFSW has better efficiency than that made by FSW
[3]. EAFSW was successfully used to join low and high strength
material and also for joining low to high strength material with
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail address: arpan@nitttrkol.ac.in (A.K. Mondal).
suitable process parameters [4,5]. But, both FSW and EAFSW pro-
cesses suffers from a problem of tool wear. Different tool material
has been used for joining of different low and high strength mate-
rial. Bist et al. [6] have worked on the tool wear rate and reported
that the tool wear rate depends on the process parameters (like
tool material and reinforcement, tool rotational and transverse
speed. Sahlot et al. [7] have used a steel tool to find out the wear
rate during FSW welding. Prater [8] has investigated a robust
method of tool wear measurement with FSW. But, with EAFSW
the tool wear has not been studied till now and the study of the
same may help to estimate the tool life by EAFSW. It is very neces-
sary to know the tool life while joining the material by FSW or
hybrid FSW method. Shaffera et al. [10] also have used XSYTIN-1
tool to successfully join Al to mild steel by EAFSW and the similar
issue related to the tool wear and tool life were reported.
In this manuscript, it has been focused to know the tool wear
while joining high strength material by a WC tool. The tool design
used as cylindrical plane with flat head. The mechanical property
of similar material joint made up of Mild steel to Mild Steel and

10
K. Sengupta, D.K. Singh, A.K. Mondal et al.
dissimilar joint made by mild steel to stainless steel has been made
and studied upon.
2. Experimental setup
A universal milling machine with a designed tool and fixture
has been used for the present study and used as an EAFSW
machine with a suitable designed fixture, tool holder and provision
to supply an electric current between the tool and the workpiece. A
Tungsten-Carbide (WC) tool was attached to the milling machine
with the help of a manufactured tool holder. A single piece of solid
tool design made up of WC material and a model of this tool with
dimension and sketch shown in Fig. 1. A suitable fixture has also
been made to hold the base material in the bed and a schematic
sketch of the fixture design represented in Fig. 2. An electric DC
source, attached to the milling machine with the help of a suitably
designed and manufactured tool holder, to provide 4 V supply with
three set of electric current of the values 50, 100 and 150 Amps as
variable parameter for experimentation, has been used by trial and
error method. Based on the trial and error method and available
settings of rpm & weld speed in the universal milling the process
parameters were selected.
3. Material selection
Based on the industrial use of material and earlier research
made on MS and SS [2,3,5], in this experiment high strength mate-
rial has been chosen for the experimentation. EAFSW is an
advanced form of FSW, where a secondary source of heat added
so as high strength material can also be joined using the technol-
ogy. Based on the material demanded for industrial utilization
and suitable tool that can be used for joining the high strength
material, Mild steel to IS 2062 Gr. B and Stainless Steel to SS 316
has been chosen as base material and Tungsten Carbide chosen
as tool material [4,10]. Tested results of physical and chemical
properties of the MS and SS represented in Table 1 and Table 2,
respectively. Tested results of chemical and physical properties of
the Tungsten-Carbide (WC) used as tool material represented in
Table 3 and Table 4, respectively.
4. Design of experiment (DOE)
As Taguchi method provides study and analysis of the results of
many input parameters with a small number of experiments, a
three level two input parameters L9 orthogonal DOE used for the
Fig. 1. CAD model of EAFSW tool.
11
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
set of experiments with FSW and a three level three input param-
eter, DOE has been used for the experiments for EAFSW [3,5,9]. As
the traversing speed affects the frictional force which are responsi-
ble to generate heat for the required stirring in the nugget zone and
also as the secondary heat by electric current affect the traversing
forces, the process parameters have been chosen to be tool rpm,
weld speed and current. Table 5 and Table 6 shows the design of
experiments for both similar and dissimilar joints respectively
while joining the materials by FSW and EAFSW, respectively.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Analysis of mechanical properties
The specimen thus joined, first studied for mechanical property
and weld efficiency of the joint. Sample joined and tested for UTS
and the image of the specimen mentioned in Fig. 3 for both similar
and dissimilar material joints. The mechanical property of the sim-
ilar joint made by mild steel and dissimilar joint made by MS to SS
shown in Table 7 and Table 8, respectively.
From the Table 7, it has been found that for a similar material
joint of mild steel, the maximum UTS obtained at 650 rpm and
20 mm/min welding speed for both the cases of joining, with both
FSW and EAFSW. From Table 8, it has been found that on joining
MS to SS dissimilar material, the maximum UTS by both FSW
and EAFSW has been observed at 1050 rpm with 20 mm/min weld-
ing speed along with 50 Amps current. This can be concluded that
in both the cases the maximum UTS obtained at same process
parameters. But, on comparing the UTS by FSW and EAFSW in
both similar and dissimilar material, it can be said that on an
addition of a secondary heat by electric energy, i.e. by EAFSW
process, the UTS of the joint increased. Due to addition of the
secondary heat energy from electric current, the heat required to
soften the material increased causing ease in stirring action of the
nugget zone. Due to better mixing of the material by the tool of the
setup and higher heating of the joint higher temperature raised
followed by colling action by surrounded air, causing increase in the
joint strength of the material.
5.2. Study of tool wears for mild steel welded joints
After conducting all the experiments according to the design of
experiments, tool wear has been measured. Table 9 represents the
measured percentage of tool wear while making a similar material
joint of mild steel without the application of current.
From Table 9, it has been observed that maximum tool wear
occurred at tool rotational speed of 500 rpm and welding speed
24 mm/min and minimum tool wear occurred at tool rotational
speed of 1050 rpm and welding speed of 11 mm/min. F i g . 4
and Fig. 5 represents the percentage of tool wear versus tool
rotational speed and percentage of tool wear versus welding speed
respectively.
From Fig. 4, it has been observed that the tool wear increased
with the weld speed and from Fig. 5, as tool revolution increases,
the percentage of tool wear decreases. Wear rate found maximum
when tool rotation was at 500 rpm and minimum at 1050 rpm
with constant welding speed. So, it has been understood that when
tool rotational speed was at 500 rpm the tool probe needed more
pressure for plunging into welding plate for that tool wear was
more. But as the tool rotational speed increased the force needed
for plunging was quite less, so the tool wear got minimized. But
when we increased welding speed tool wear increased because
the tool pin needed more force to cut the material. Due to that rea-
son higher heat generated in the welding zone, so the tool wear
increased. But in a lower welding speed tool probe got sufficient
 Fig. 2. CAD model of clamping fixture.

Table 1
Chemical composition of base materials.

Materials C Mn Si P S Cr Ni Mo Fe
IS 2062 Grade B 0.09 0.89 0.23 0.028 0.023 – – – Balance
SS 316 0.06 1.20 0.42 0.025 0.020 17.25 10.52 2.50 Balance

Table 2
Physical properties of base materials [3,5].

Materials Density (gm/cm3) Melting point (℃) Young’s modulus (GPa) Poisson ratio UTS (MPa) HRB
IS 2062 Grade B 7.87 1420 210 0.29 410–440 71
SS 316 8.00 1400 193 0.26 530–680 92

Table 3
Chemical composition of WC based alloy tool.

Table 4
Properties of Tungsten-Carbide [3,5].
 Material C (%) Cr (%) Ni (%) W (%)

WC alloy 4.96 5.12 9.84 Balance

Material Density (gm/cm3) Melting point (℃) Thermal conductivity (W/m-℃) Youngs modulus (GPa) UTS Poisson’s ratio HRC

WC 15.63 2830 85.26 630 350 0.24 70–85

Table 5
Table 6
Design of experiment for both similar and dissimilar joints without current [3,5]
Design of experiment for both similar and dissimilar joints with current [3,5].

Exp. No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed (mm/min) Exp. No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed Current (Amp)
(mm/min)
1 500 11
2 500 20 1 500 11 50
3 500 24 2 500 20 100
4 650 11 3 500 24 150
5 650 20 4 650 11 100
6 650 24 5 650 20 150
7 1050 11 6 650 24 50
8 1050 20 7 1050 11 150
9 1050 24 8 1050 20 50
9 1050 24 100

time to cut the material. The reaction force generated by the weld-
ing plate has been reduced, so the tool wear rate minimized.
The percentage of tool wear has also been measured after
applying extra heat input as a secondary electric current from a
DC power sources kept at 4 V. The percentage of tool wear for mild
steel welded joints with the application of current shown in
Table 10, and it has been observed that the tool wear rate mini-
mized after applying current and the tool wear rate was maximum
at 500 rpm and minimum at 1050 rpm.
 Fig. 3. Joined specimen sample (a) similar joint of Mild steel (b) Dissimilar joint of Mild Steel to Stainless
Steel.

Table 7
UTS of similar material welded mild steel plate.

Sl.No. Tool rotationalspeed (rpm) Welding speed(mm/min) Current(Amp) UTS (MPa)without current UTS (MPa)with current
1 500 11 50 390 410
2 500 20 100 432 444
3 500 24 150 384 402
4 650 11 100 495 501
5 650 20 150 510 524
6 650 24 50 480 487
7 1050 11 150 410 428
8 1050 20 50 430 452
9 1050 24 100 390 396

Table 8
UTS of dissimilar material welded mild steel to stainless steel plate.

Sl.No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed (mm/min) Current (Amp) UTS(MPa)without current UTS(MPa)with current
1 500 11 50 354 364
2 500 20 100 390 418
3 500 24 150 324 340
4 650 11 100 401 420
5 650 20 150 422 452
6 650 24 50 360 392
7 1050 11 150 450 454
8 1050 20 50 492 508
9 1050 24 100 402 410

Fig. 6 represents the input process parameter versus the per-

out an application of current. It has been assumed that the tool
centage of tool wear in a bar graph with trend lines. The image
wear rate decreased due to current applied because extra heat
of the tool pre and post welding shown in Fig. 7a., Fig. 7b..
input applied in the welding zone. For that extra heat, the material
From Fig. 6, it has been clearly observed that after using current
in the welding zone softened, so the pressure created on the tool
as an extra heat input, the tool wear rate decreased. It has also
pin and tool shoulder decreased than the conventional FSW
been observed that the trend of the percentage of tool wear
process.
increasing or decreasing was almost same for both with and with-
Table 9
Percentage of tool wear for mild steel welded joints without application of current.

Exp. No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed (mm/min) Tool weight (Before) gm Tool weight (After) gm Tool wear (%)
1 500 11 193.823 193.551 0.14
2 500 20 193.551 193.241 0.16
3 500 24 193.241 192.874 0.19
Tool Re-sharpening
4 650 11 190.728 190.514 0.11
5 650 20 190.514 190.266 0.13
6 650 24 190.266 190.022 0.16
Tool Re-sharpening
7 1050 11 185.656 185.526 0.07
8 1050 20 185.526 185.359 0.09
9 1050 24 185.359 185.155 0.11

Fig. 4. Welding speed (mm/min) vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel joints without current.

Fig. 5. Tool’s rotational speed (rpm) vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel joints without current.

Table 10
Percentage of tool wear for mild steel welded joints with the application of current.

Exp. No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed (mm/min) Current (Amp) Tool weight (before) gm Tool weight (after)gm Tool wear (%)
1 500 11 150 184.316 183.984 0.13
2 500 20 50 183.984 183.689 0.15
3 500 24 100 183.689 183.505 0.18
Tool Re-sharpening
4 650 11 100 182.426 182.207 0.10
5 650 20 150 182.207 182.006 0.14
6 650 24 50 182.006 181.842 0.16
Tool Re-sharpening
7 1050 11 50 180.465 180.320 0.06
8 1050 20 100 180.320 180.266 0.08
9 1050 24 150 180.266 180.247 0.09
 Fig. 6. Plot of input process parameter vs % of tool wear for mild steel joints.
5.3. Study of tool wear for mild steel-stainless steel welded joints
Fig. 7a. Tool condition after joining mild steel before applying current.
Fig. 7b. Tool condition after joining mild steel after applying current.
From Fig. 7(a) and 7(b), it has been observed that the damage
occurs to the tool pin and shoulder was quite high without the
application of current. But, in the case of hybrid EAFSW process
with the application of current, less damage to the tool has
occurred. Due to the addition of the secondary heat source to the
joining process, higher heat has been generated and due to this less
axial and vertical load on the tool has been generated. As the load
on the tool was low in case of EAFSW, the tool wear was measured
as low in case of EAFSW.
All the experiment for dissimilar joints done according to the
design of experiments. Table 11 represents the percentage of tool
wear rate for mild steel- stainless steel welded joints without the
application of current.
From Table 11, it has been shown that tool wear rate was max-
imum at tool rotational speed of 500 rpm and welding speed of
24 mm/min; and minimum at tool rotational speed of 1050 rpm
with welding speed of 11 mm/min. After applying current the per-
centage of tool wear has also been measured. The effect of tool
wear with tool rotational speed and welding speed given by
Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 respectively.
From the above Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, it has been shown that the tool
wear rate decreased as tool rotational speed has been increased
and the tool wear rate increased when welding speed increased.
The reason was the same for both similar and dissimilar joints,
which have been discussed earlier. The percentage of tool wear
also measured after applying extra heat input, applied by electrical
means has been shown in Table 12 and the effect of tool wear after
applying electrical current has been shown in Fig. 10.
From Table 12, it has been observed that the tool wear rate was
maximum at 500 rpm and minimum at 1050 rpm. Fig. 10 shows,
how input process parameters affect the tool wear. In Fig. 10, it
has been seen that the tool wear rate was less when current was
applied. The trend of tool wear, increasing or decreasing, was same
for both similar and dissimilar welding for application or without
application of current. But, in case of joining mild steel with stain-
less steel, stainless was comparatively harder than mild steel.
That’s why the tool wear rate for the dissimilar joint was more.
From Fig. 11, it was seen that the damage of the tool pin was
more for dissimilar joints rather than similar joints. It has also been
Table 11
Percentage of tool wear for mild steel-stainless steel welded joints without application of current.

Exp. No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed (mm/min) Tool weight (Before) (gm) Tool weight (After) (gm) Tool wear (%)
1 500 11 178.846 178.542 0.17
2 500 20 178.542 178.202 0.19
3 500 24 178.202 177.827 0.21
Tool Re-sharpening
4 650 11 176.458 176.193 0.13
5 650 20 176.193 175.928 0.15
6 650 24 175.928 175.628 0.17
Tool Re-sharpening
7 1050 11 174.684 174.526 0.09
8 1050 20 174.526 174.316 0.12
9 1050 24 174.316 174.071 0.14

Fig. 8. Tool revolutions (rpm) vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints without current.

Fig. 9. Welding speed (mm/min) vs. % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints without current.

Table 12
Percentage of tool wear for mild steel-stainless steel welded joints with the application of current.

Exp. No. Tool rotational speed (rpm) Welding speed (mm/min) Current (Amp) Tool weight (before) gm Tool weight (after) gm Tool wear (%)
1 500 11 150 173.234 172.991 0.14
2 500 20 50 172.991 172.696 0.17
3 500 24 100 172.696 172.367 0.19
Tool Re-sharpening
4 650 11 100 172.367 172.177 0.11
5 650 20 150 172.177 171.953 0.13
6 650 24 50 171.953 170.665 0.15
Tool Re-sharpening
7 1050 11 50 171.665 171.544 0.07
8 1050 20 100 171.544 171.372 0.10
9 1050 24 150 171.372 171.166 0.12

seen that with the application of current the damage of tool was
rial and helped the tool to cut the material easily. Due to the addi-
less because of the addition of extra heat source softened the mate-
tion of the secondary heat, higher heat at the nugget zone created
 Fig. 10. Process input parameter vs % of tool wear plot for mild steel-stainless steel joints with EAFSW.
Fig. 11. Tool condition after joining mild steel-stainless steel.
and better mixing with low axial and tangential load acted on the
tool during mixing process. This caused less wear of the tool as
well as hight ultimate tensile strength of the joint made.
6. Conclusions
From the study and analysis of the joint made by similar and
dissimilar joint along with the study of tool wear property follow-
ing observations has been concluded:
● As no cavity or groove-like defect found at the nugget area wile
joining with low welding speed. It can be concluded that when
welding speed decreases heat input increases, increasing better
mixing at nugget zone, resulting less weld defects. Due to
proper mixing al low weld speed, high rpm with addition of sec-
ondary sources, no defects observed in the weld zone.
● In both similar and dissimilar material joint, it can be said that
by an addition of secondary heat by electric energy, i.e. by
EAFSW process, the UTS of the joint raised than that with
FSW. This was due to the fact that due to addition of the sec-
ondary heat source, higher heat generated in the nugget zone
causing better mixing of the material as well as higher rate of
cooling which resulted in tempering of the joint, raising weld
efficiency and UTS of the joint.
● For similar and dissimilar FSW welding tool wear rate has been
found maximum at high welding speed of 24 mm/min with
500 rpm and minimum at 1050 rpm with low welding speed
11 mm/min for both FSW and EAFSW. Due to higher welding
speed and low heat generation, the tangential and radial load
on the tool was higher, resulting the tool to wear out at a higher
rate. Whereas in case of a low welding speed and high rpm,
higher heat generated in the nugget zone. Also, on addition of
secondary heat by electric current the generation of heat
increased. This caused ease in stirring action of the material
beneath the tool, and also the tangential and radial load on
the tool decreased which resulted in low tool wear.
● It has also been found that in a conventional FSW process for
similar mild steel material tool wear rate was 0.19% and mini-
mum tool wear rate was 0.07% and with EAFSW maximum tool
wear rate and minimum tool wear rate decreased to 0.18% and
0.06% respectively. EAFSW process stands as better joining pro-
cess than FSW process and can be utilised for joining high
strength material with suitable process parameters.
● In another aspect, it was observed that for dissimilar material
joining tool wear rate was slightly high because of the presence
of high strength alloy like SS 316. The maximum and minimum
tool wear rate for dissimilar material in conventional FSW was
0.21% and 0.09% respectively. But after applying electrical cur-
 rent the maximum and minimum tool wear rate decreased to
0.19% and 0.07%, respectively. So, it has been concluded that
with sufficient heat input, tool wear rate decreases.
● After using WC tool, it has been observed that the wear rate is
more when welding on high strength and hard materials like
steel and PCBN tools are very costly. So, it is possible to develop
a tool by composite materials which can be economical for use.
WC with suitable secondary heat to FSW and suitable process
parameters may result in higher tool life in EAFSW.
● Various other secondary heat source enhanced FSW set up can
be developed to get the sound weld and may stand useful for
the industrial utilisation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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