Friction stir welding of magnesium alloy
AZ31B to aluminium alloy 5083
A. A. McLean, G. L. F. Powell, I. H. Brown and V. M. Linton
A preliminary investigation has been carried out into
the application of friction stir welding for joining a
magnesium alloy to an aluminium alloy. The work has
shown that liquation during the welding process can
lead to the formation of a brittle intermetallic at the
joint interface. This intermetallic has a microstructure
composed of a divorced lamellar eutectic containing
Al12Mg17 and magnesium. The formation of this micro-
structure and its in uence on mechanical properties are
discussed in terms of solidiŽ cation theory. STWJ/397
The authors are with the Co-operative Research Centre
for Welded Structures Group in the School of
Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide,
SA 5005, Australia (graham.powell@mecheng.adelaide.
edu.au). Manuscript received 13 August 2002;
accepted 26 March 2003.
# 2003 IoM Communications Ltd. Published by Maney for
the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
INTRODUCTION
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid state joining process
developed at The Welding Institute (TWI), Cambridge,
UK, in 1991.1 The process utilises a rotating tool to provide
both frictional heating and mixing to produce a weld
between two metallic surfaces.2 ,3 The process operates
below the melting point of the metals being welded, giving it
potential to dissimilar metals that cannot be joined by
conventional fusion methods.4
The aim of this research has been to evaluate the potential
for using the FSW process to weld magnesium alloys to
aluminium alloys. Recently, great interest has been shown
in the use of magnesium alloys in the automotive and
transport sectors, to reduce weight and thus fuel consump-
tion. Magnesium is the lightest of the structural metals with
a density two-thirds that of aluminium and one-quarter that
of steel. The ability to join magnesium components
effectively to other engineering materials would allow
further design  exibility and increased application of this
lightweight material.
Magnesium alloys exhibit good speciŽ c strength, excel-
lent stiffness and vibration damping characteristics and
extremely good castability. They are however expensive to
produce in sheet form which suggests that potential
magnesium/aluminium fabricated components might con-
sist of magnesium castings (or perhaps extrusions) joined to
aluminium sheet or plate sections.
Friction stir welding of dissimilar metals raises issues
that are not encountered when fusion welding. The Ž rst
consideration is the welding geometry, which results from
the asymmetric nature of the FSW process (see Fig. 1). The
placement of the material (left or right) affects the direction
in which the tool rotates over the material, with respect to
the direction of travel. This placement also affects which
462 Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8
material is predominately forced into the weld cavity at
the rear of the tool. The placement of the tool with respect
to the centreline of the weld can also affect the welding
characteristics by promoting increased heating in a par-
ticular side or causing more of one material to be drawn into
the ‘stirring’ zone.
The physical and chemical compatibility of the two
materials to be joined is also important. The materials must
have comparable  ow characteristics at the temperatures
reached during welding, typically 0.8TM , where TM is the
absolute the melting temperature.5 ,6 The design of the FSW
tool in uences the degree to which the two materials are
mixed during welding. It may be desirable to have a dif-
ferent degree of mixing for dissimilar materials compared to
that utilised in FSW of similar materials.
The chemistry of the materials and/or any intermediate
material should also be selected to avoid metallurgical
problems such as liquation and the formation of brittle
intermetallics in the weld zone.7 – 1 0
EXPERIMENTAL
Welding and materials
For the purpose of this evaluation, dissimilar metal friction
stir butt welds were produced between 12 mm thick plates
of the magnesium alloy AZ31B (nominal composition Mg –
3Al – 1Zn) and the AA 5083 (nominal composition Al –
4.6Mg – 0.6Mn – 0.3Si). Four welding trials were conducted
on 200 mm long plates (weld length 160 mm) using a
threaded tool tip 10.6 mm in length with a conical proŽ le.
Weld travel speed was varied between 60 and
100 mm min2 1 with tool rotational speed varied between
300 and 400 rev min2 1 . Rigid clamping was applied to the
sides and top of the plates to prevent any movement during
welding. The most successful welds were achieved when the
magnesium alloy was placed on the trailing side of the tool
(right hand side, Fig. 1a) so that the softer alloy
(magnesium) was stirred into the cavity behind the tool.
Offsetting the tool to the magnesium side of the weld
centreline also improved production of a visually sound
weld, probably as a result of the superior  ow character-
istics of the magnesium alloy.
a direction of tool rotation with respect to direction of
travel; b placement of tool with respect to centreline of
weld
1 Welding geometry during friction stir welding
No. 6 DOI 10.1179/136217103225009134
 McLean et al. Friction stir welding of magnesium alloy A231B to aluminium alloy AA5038
2 Optical macrograph of welded region (etched sample,
material thickness 12 mm)
Mechanical testing
Side bend tests were conducted on full thickness samples
approximately 2 mm in depth, cut from sound regions of
the trial welds. A former of radius 20 times the thickness of
the samples (i.e. 40 mm radius) was used for initial ductility
evaluation.
Metallography and microanalysis
Samples were analysed by optical and scanning electron
microscopy using a Philips XL30 FEGSEM, after prepara-
tion by grinding on successively Ž ner grit papers and then
polishing using a 3 mm diamond paste. After Ž nal polishing
using Struers OP-S suspension samples were carefully
 ushed with alcohol. Optical microscopy samples were
etched in an ethanol based, 1% picric acid solution. Samples
examined by scanning electron microscopy were studied in
the unetched condition.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 2 shows an optical macrograph of a transverse
section from one of the trial welds, in which the tool was
offset slightly to the left (magnesium) side during welding.
The mixing of the two metals can be clearly seen. Although
visually sound welds were produced, side bend testing
revealed that the welds possessed virtually no ductility, (see
Fig. 3).
3 Optical macrograph of fractured 1262 mm bend test
sample, viewed from above and transversely, showing
fracture path through weld (unetched sample)
463
4 Electron back-scattered image of aluminium – magnesium
intermetallic at weld interface (unetched sample)
SEM analysis of the welds revealed the presence of a thin
interface layer with a chemical composition dissimilar to
both base materials (see Fig. 4). The bond between this
layer and the aluminium alloy was sufŽ ciently weak that the
sample cracked under the relatively light forces experienced
during polishing.
The interface layer was analysed using an EDAX DX4
energy dispersive X-ray analyser and was found to be
Al1 2 Mg1 7 , an intermetallic found on the Al – Mg phase
diagram.1 1 This intermetallic was present as thin continuous
layers with a planar interface between the aluminium alloy
and magnesium alloy throughout the stirred weld. The
Al1 2 Mg1 7 intermetallic layer varied in thickness but was
typically 2.5 mm in all the welds examined. The debonding
had occurred between the intermetallic and the aluminium
alloy.
The identity of the intermetallic as Al1 2 Mg1 7 , its planar
nature and its thickness provide an explanation for the
sequence of transformations which occurred during friction
stir welding. The Al1 2 Mg1 7 intermetallic appears to have
formed as a divorced eutectic.1 2 – 1 4 In the Al – Mg binary
system there is a eutectic at 67 wt-%Mg between Al1 2 Mg1 7
and magnesium, with a eutectic temperature of 437°C.
During friction stir welding, typical heating around the tool
raised the temperature of the material in the welded zone to
around 0.8TM of the aluminium and magnesium alloys, a
temperature approximately equal to the eutectic tempera-
ture of 437°C for the Al1 2 Mg1 7 zMg eutectic. At this
temperature, melting occurred at interfaces between the
aluminium and magnesium alloys resulting in the formation
of a thin molten layer of approximately eutectic composi-
tion. After welding this layer solidiŽ ed as a divorced
lamellar eutectic. SolidiŽ cation occurred in the plane of the
intermetallic in Fig. 4 (i.e. at right angles to the polished
surface), with the magnesium solidifying on the pre-existing
magnesium surface (right hand side, Fig. 4) while the
Al1 2 Mg1 7 solidiŽ ed as a thin (~2.5 mm) lamella between the
magnesium and aluminium substrates. The preferred crack
path, shown in Fig. 4, between the Al1 2 Mg1 7 and the
aluminium alloy shows that the bond between the inter-
metallic and the aluminium alloy was weaker than that
between the intermetallic and the magnesium alloy. The
eutectic grew as a divorced lamellar eutectic with magne-
sium solidifying on the magnesium alloy substrate forming
a coherent layer. Had the Al1 2 Mg1 7 formed by a solid state
transformation, regions of broken and distributed inter-
metallic would be expected to be seen within the weld. No
evidence of this was observed.
It may be possible to avoid the formation of this
intermetallic layer by maintaining a lower temperature
during welding (below the 437°C eutectic temperature) or
Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 2003 Vol. 8 No. 6
464 McLean et al. Friction stir welding of magnesium alloy A231B to aluminium alloy AA5038

by incorporating an intermediate material between the Microscopy at The University of Adelaide for their
aluminium and the magnesium. assistance with the analytical electron microscopy.

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