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Design and Optimization of Friction Stir Welding Tool

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DOI: 10.1080/10426910903536733

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Design and Optimization of Friction Stir Welding Tool

a a b b c
Mouloud Aissani , Saliha Gachi , Fouad Boubenider & Younes Benkedda
a
Scientific Research Center on Welding and Control (CSC), Algeria
b
Physics Department, USTHB, Algiers, Algeria
c
Mechanic Department, University of S. Dahlab Blida (USDB), Blida, Algeria
Available online: 17 Dec 2010

To cite this article: Mouloud Aissani, Saliha Gachi, Fouad Boubenider & Younes Benkedda (2010): Design and Optimization of
Friction Stir Welding Tool, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 25:11, 1199-1205

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 Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 25: 1199–1205, 2010
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1042-6914 print/1532-2475 online
DOI: 10.1080/10426910903536733

Design and Optimization of Friction Stir Welding Tool

Mouloud Aissani1 , Saliha Gachi1
2 , Fouad Boubenider2 , and Younes Benkedda3
1
Scientific Research Centre on Welding and Control (CSC), Algeria
2
Physic Department, USTHB, Algiers, Algeria
3
Mechanic Department, University of S. Dahlab Blida (USDB), Blida, Algeria

In Friction stir welding, the tool geometry plays a fundamental role to obtain suited microstructures in the weld and the heat affected zone.
In this work, for obtaining an excellent weld appearance without void, cracking, or distortion, an attempt was made to select proper FSW tool
for aluminium alloy. So, we have included in the tool a safety system aimed at avoiding premature damage, and allowing the measure of applied
pressure. The improved tool was tested on AA2024-T4 and AA7075-T6 aluminum alloys sheets. The weld quality has been evaluated by means
of a microstructure analysis and micro-hardness measurements. The capacity to increase the welding speed, the changes of the crystalline plans
orientation in the mixed part of thermo-mechanically affected zone and grains sizes observed in micrographics underlines the effect of the pin
geometry and its displacement. The micro-hardness curve shows good mechanical properties. Finally, obtained results show welds of very good
qualities. This study opens new interesting perspectives.
Downloaded by [193.194.80.82] at 00:54 10 July 2011

Keywords Aluminium; Design; Friction Stir Welding; Metallography; Micro-hardness.

Introduction
Friction stir welding (FSW) is considered in the
aeronautic and automotive industries as an innovative
process [1–3], since it allows the joining of high strength
aluminium alloys, such as 2000 and 7000 series and other
metallic alloys that are generally considered difficult, to be
welded by using conventional fusion techniques [3–5]. As
laser beam welding, FSW becomes also a common joining
technique in aeronautic (fuselage and wing) applications,
and it can replace conventional riveting actually used in
airframe components. It requires less energy than the laser
technique (only 2.5% of the laser energy is used). Also, it
creates welded products without producing any toxic fumes
or solid waste, and the weld joint does not involve any
filler metal. This process avoids also compatibility problems
related to the metal compositions during welding. It has a
great impact on the final results compared to other fusion
welding processes.
The FSW process uses a specially designed rotating,
nonconsumable tool to generate frictional heat in the
workpiece. This rotating tool causes local changes in the
welded material [6, 7] because of mechanical deformation
and heat transfer. The key component of the process is the
friction tool, which has two essential conventional parts.
The first one is the profiled pin extending along the rotating
component axis. The second part of the tool is the shoulder.
The shoulder is the working surface of the tool, normal to
the rotation axis. Once the workpieces are placed in contact
and appropriately fixed, the tool is then inserted at high
Received September 15, 2009; Accepted November 20, 2009
Address correspondence to Saliha Gachi, Laboratory of Physics of
Materials, Faculty of Physics, University of Sciences and of Technology
Houari Boumediene (USTHB), BP 32 El Alia Bab Ezzouar, Alger,
Algeria; E-mail: s_gachi@yahoo.fr
1199
angular speed, plunging the pin into the workpieces until
the shoulder makes full contact with workpieces surfaces.
At this point, the rotating tool is then moved along the
joint line, deforming the material in its passage, leaving
behind a formed weld while a relatively high forging force
is applied to maintain full contact between the shoulder and
the workpieces surfaces (Fig. 1).
During the FSW process, the temperature remains below
the melting point of the material (80% of its melting
point) [4, 8]. The heat transfer in the material allows the
rotating tool to stir mechanically the softened material
flowing to the backside of the pin where it is consolidated
to form a metallurgical bond with specified zones. These
zones are identified as the heat affected zone (HAZ)
and the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) within
the nugget zone. Consequently, the geometry of both the
shoulder and the pin are important in the FSW process. So,
the welded joint dependents on the geometric parameters
of the tool, such as the height, the shape of the pin, and
the shoulder surface of the head. Rotating speed, advancing
speed, and force are superimposed on the rotating tool
during the process.
Among the vast published literature, few publications
have treated the manufacturing process of the FSW tool
and studied the tool geometry effect on the process. The
majority research contributions showed that a concave
shoulder and threaded cylindrical pins are generally used.
Thereafter, complex pin shapes have been developed to
alter material flow, mixing, and to reduce process loads.
Tomas et al. [9] carried out a WhorlTM and its variant
MX TrifluteTM pins in order to displace less material than
the conventional pin of the same root diameter. Usually,
the WhorlTM reduces the displaced volume by about 60%,
while the MX TrifluteTM reduces the displaced volume by
about 70%. Moreover, both pins can reduce welding force,
facilitate the downward augering effect, enable easier flow
 1200
Figure 1.—Basic FSW process.
of plasticized material, and increase the interface between
the pin and the plasticized material, thus increasing heat
generation. Rowe et al. [8] showed that MX TrifluteTM
can produce a better butt weld than the WhorlTM tool with
the narrower and more parallel sided weld region. For lap
welding, it is desirable to increase the weld width region
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in order to achieve a better bond. Consequently, Rowe
et al. [8] and Tomas et al. [10, 11] developed recently
two new pin geometries: Flared-TrifluteTM , with the flute
lands being flared out, and A-skewTM with the pin axis
being slightly inclined to the axis of machine spindle. As
a result, and compared to the conventional threaded pin,
the Flared-TrifuteTM and A-skewTM pins can improve over
100% in welding speed, about 20% reduction in axial force,
widen welding region, reduce the upper plate thinning, and
provide an orbital forging action at the root of the weld.
In addition, the authors illustrate the Reversal Stir Welding
Technique (Re-stir™) with their preliminary studies. These
conceptions are also studied in the following reference [12].
Furthermore, Thomas et al. [12, 13] are interested in a
new technique in which two contra-rotating pins are used to
carry out the weld. These can be either in tandem position or
as parallel side-by-side transverse to the welding direction
or with simultaneous double side of the weld. As a result, all
counter-rotating systems help to reduce the reactive torque
necessary to secure plates to the machine during the process.
However, this technique is not yet fully exploited because
of its complexity of more than one rotating pin.
For conception through modeling and numerical
simulation, we can refer to some notable works. Buffa
et al. [14] used the commercial FEA software DEFORM-
3DTM based on the continuum FEM model. This
investigation studies the influence of pin angle and
advancing speed on various parameters such as temperature
distribution, hydrostatic stress distribution, strain rate,
vertical, and advancing forces. Finally, they have studied the
influence on predicted grains size distribution. The results
allow finding optimal tool geometry and advancing speed in
order to improve the nugget integrity of welded aluminium
alloys.
In other works, Buffa et al. [15] are interested, in
particular, in sheets welded with different ratio thicknesses.
For that, numerical simulations are performed to predict
the feasibility of the process, the final shape of the welded
blank, and the distribution of the main process variables. It
M. AISSANI ET AL.
is found that quite a large range of different thicknesses can
be successfully welded with good nugget integrity.
On the other hand, other studies are actually under
investigation to improve and upgrade the welding tool
capabilities, like increasing its wear resistance and to
weld materials with high melting point (e.g., steels, metal
matrix composites) [1, 16]. Other research indicates that the
presence of multi-preheating sources ahead of the stirred
tool reduce the temperature gradient comparing to the
conventional FSW process [17].
Throughout this bibliographic search, no published paper
was found to be devoted clearly to the safety problem
(security). That consists to protect the welding tool and
milling machine from an eventual damage during the
process caused by an excessive forging force. Except Buffa
et al. [15], who just said that, during the FSW process, the
tool/pin is subjected to considerable forces able to cause a
break if there is not a sufficient mechanical strength. They
also demonstrated that the vertical force on the tool (≈5000–
6000 N) is greater than the advancing force (≈900 N).
Within this framework, the purpose of this article is
to give an optimized conception of the FSW tool from
the first one created in the research center on welding
and control (CSC) [18], with a modified shape pin; as
well as an adjusted length mechanism to allow multidepth
welding of workpieces. We included in the holding tool
“a shaft-spring-based system” aimed at avoiding premature
damage to ensure the important protection cited above.
With this system, we can also evaluate the vertical force
and so the pressure applied on the workpieces during
welding. The improved FSW tool has been tested on
two aluminium alloy sheets (AA2024-T4 and AA7075-T6)
with different thicknesses. Microstructural examination and
microhardness measurements were carried out to evaluate
the quality and the properties of the weld.
Experimental procedure
Tool Design
The tool carried out is made up of a separate shoulder
from the pin, to allow a manual adaptive length of the pin
and welding plates with different thicknesses. The tool is
mainly composed by the following: (1) tool holding part,
(2) shaft, (3) spring, (4) key, (5) shoulder and pin, and (6)
grub screw used to limit the pin position in the shoulder at
a desired length (Fig. 2).
A tri-flute type pin was used with a conical threaded
geometry to produce a better weld [Fig. 3(b)] than the first
tool developed with a fixed standard pin to shoulder [18]
[Fig. 3(a)]. It allows a light increase in the advance speed,
to reduce the asymmetry in the weld region, and improves
tensile properties.
The wearing of the tool elements during the FSW occurs
often at high temperature. So it is manufactured from
alloys that have high-temperature wear resistance and would
reduce its fast damage. The conception of tool geometry is
also important in order to reduce the wearing effects [14].
In our case, most of FSW tool components were made with
E24 mild steel; however, the shoulder and the pin material
was made from a treated 42CD4 steel “the low alloyed–
medium carbon steel” (NF A 35-552 standard). Table 1
 DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF FSW TOOL
Figure 2.—Mains elements of the absorber system.
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Figure 3.—FSW tool shoulders with (a) fixed standard pins and (b) with
modified pin.
shows its chemical compositions in wt% ×10−2 . The last
two components are also treated thermally to improve its
mechanical properties.
The E24 mild steel is characterized by the following
mechanical properties: tensile strength Rm = 340 MPa,
yield strength Rp = 235 MPa, density r = 7850 kg/m3 ,
Young’s modulus E = 210000 MPa, and Poisson’s ratio
n = 03.
The mechanical and thermal properties of 42CD4 steel
are the following ones: ultimate tensile strength Rm =
814 MPa, density r = 7850 kg/m3 ; yield stress Re =
485 MPa, elasticity modulus E = 205000 MPa, Poisson’s
ratio n = 03, specific heat capacity C = 450–560 J ·
Kg−1 K, thermal conductivity K = 32–40 Wm−1 K, good
wearing resistance, moderate resistance of impact, and
difficult manufacturing.
Generally, we select the tool materials and the wearing
resistance to ensure a good lifetime of the FSW tool.
However, we should secure the FSW tool against damage
due to the excessive loading. Hence, we have created a
mechanism in the tool holder that will compensate the
Table 1.—Chemical compositions in wt% × 10−2 of 42CD4 steel and E24 mild steel.
Elements (wt%) × 10−2 C Mn
42CD4 42.5 74.9
E24 17 110
1201
exceeded vertical load, applied on the FSW tool. As shown
in Figs. 2 and 3, it mainly consists of some elements cited
above, like the shaft with two distinct diameters, the spring
with ‘K’ stiffness rate, a grub screw, and the lock element
into the holder. The shaft is attached to the shoulder by a
thread and fixed to the tool holder by a key, so their relative
rotation is eliminated but allows a relative translation
movement, parallel to the Z-axis. This compresses the
spring to a wanted calculated pressure. There are always
possibilities of overcompression. However, the spring will
absorb any exercised load or shock. These last ones can
be caused by false clamping of user or by mistakes during
manipulations.
The main characteristics of spring are the following:
Coulomb modulus G = 83000 MPa, outer diameter D =
27 mm, deformation allowed in our spring l = 20 mm,
and the stiffness rate K = 18 N/mm.
This system allows also to evaluate the applied forces
between the tool and the workpieces and so the applied
pressure during welding. The value of l is quite enough
for our requirement. If the thickness of the plate is bigger
than 10 mm, we recommend either to increase the spring
stiffness or to make in the tool conception more spring
elongation, as we can increase the both characteristics.
Figure 3 shows the first FSW tool shoulders with a fixed
standard pin (3a) used in previous works [18] and the
modified last one (3b) constructed in this work. The angle
pin used is optimized for 20 , and its length must be slightly
less than the sheet thickness, ≈95%, in size.
It should be noted that another shoulder with a larger
diameter [Fig. 3(b)] was made to assure the necessary heat
for welding AA7075-T6 sheets of 5 mm in thickness.
The applied pressure on the sheets along the Z axis can
be calculated as follows:
F
p=
(1)
S
Si S P Ni Cr Mo Cu Al
26.6 29 16 23.2 118 15.4 22.7 7.27
03 02.5 04 – – – – 01
 1202 M. AISSANI ET AL.

Table 2.—Compositions in wt% of AA2024 and AA7075 alloys.

Element Cu Fe Si Cr Mg Mn Zn Ti

2024-T4 3.8–4.9 0.5 0.5 0.1 1.2–1.8 0.3–0.9 0.25 0.15

7075-T6 1.2–2 0.5 0.4 0.1–0.28 2.1–2.9 0.3 5.1–6.1 0.2

Table 3.—Sheets thickness, tool sizes, and welding parameters.

Shoulder Rotation Applied

Thickness Pin dimension diameter speed (rpm Adv. speed pressure
Material (mm) (mm) (mm) or tr/min) (mm/min) (MPa)

2024-T4 1.6 L = 12, D = 6 20 1400 16 10.90

2024-T4 1.6 L = 12, D = 6 20 2000 16 10.90
7075-T6 5 L = 4, D = 5 35 2000 16 10.49

where material is an alloy of aluminium and zinc that had

undergone a T6 heat treatment, which is composed of
D2 solubilization, quenching in water, and artificial ageing.
S= (2) The two alloys are characterized by their lightness and
4 mechanical properties. They are often used in aeronautic
F = K × l (3) structures such as the fuselage and wings.
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The nominal alloys composition is given in Table 2.

Here, F is the applied force. In our case, we have considered
the maximum load equals 360 N, S is the pin surface, D is
the pin diameter, and K is spring stiffness.
Machine and Clamping
Welding by FSW process was mostly performed on
modified machine tools, in particular on milling machines
with modified milling cutters [19]. A clamping fixture was
utilized in order to fix the specimens to be welded on a
milling machine characterized by a 5 KW max power in
its engine, 45–2000 rpm for the rotating speed, and 16–
100 mm/min for advancing speed of tool. A combination of
extrusion and such forging between pin/shoulder and anvil
generates a solid state weld.
Material and Welding Parameters
The first material used in this study is substantially an
alloy of aluminium and copper: AA2024-T4 had undergone
a T4 heat treatment which is composed of solubilization,
quenching in cold water, and natural ageing. The second
The sheets were welded under the same advancing speed,
and only the rotation speed has been varied. The main
geometrical characteristics of the tool with the welding
parameters are mentioned in Table 3.
L and D are, respectively, the length and the pin diameter.
Results and discussion
First Welding Results
For the first welding test, the choice of welding
parameters was arbitrary. The results obtained do not give
enough efficiency, as shown in Fig. 4.
We can notice that the welding is complete, but it has
been depressed [Fig. 4(a)] and discontinued with miss of
fusion [Fig. 4(b). This is explained by the loss of pressure
on the sheets, which decreases the heat input. Macro defects
are observed on the upper welding bond surface [Fig. 4(c)].
These defects are generally related to plastic flow processes
and have a strong influence on crack paths as confirmed in
[20].
Thus, these results show that the tool produced defective
welds because of the bad choice of welding parameters

Figure 4.—Some first results.

 DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF FSW TOOL
Figure 5.—AA2024-T4 welded sheets with a rotation speed equal to
1400 rpm.
(great advancing speed, low rotation speed, and over or loss
of pressure).
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Welding Results with Optimal Welding Parameters
From the previous tests, we could have the proper
processing parameters to obtain a smooth and defect-
free joint. In Figs. 5–7, we represent the welding results
carried out on AA2024-T4 and AA7075-T6 sheets with two
different rotation speeds, namely, 1400 and 2000 rpm.
We note that the joints are fairly good, with a smooth and
slightly depressed weld surface. The increase of the rotation
speed allows more heat input by friction with shoulder,
as evinced in Fig. 6. So we can obtain an excellent weld
appearance without void, cracking, or distortion, at very
slow travel rate, relatively high pressure, and high rotation
speed.
Microstructure profiles
The microstructures visualizations of the success welding
are performed on cross-section of joint after the sheets
are cut perpendicular to the welding direction, coating,
polishing, and etching with chemical product type “killer’s
reagent” (2 ml HF (48%), 3 ml HCL, 20 ml nitric acid
(conc.), 190 ml distilled water) for around 20–30 s with
ambient temperature. The micrographics results obtained
using an optical microscope equipped with a numerical
camera are illustrated as follow:
Figure 6.—AA2024-T4 welded sheets with a rotation speed equal to
2000 rpm.
1203
Figure 7.—AA7075-T6 welded sheets with a rotation speed equal to
2000 rpm.
Figure 8(a) shows the macrostructure of a weld joint
where the dark section is the FSW weld. The dimensions
of this zone (top and bottom widths) are slightly larger
(∼0.5 mm) than the shoulder and pin diameter, which is in
agreement with the result founded by Deqing et al. [21].
In Fig. 8(b), three distinct microstructure regions of
AA2024-T4 joint are identified: HAZ, TMAZ, and nugget
(stirred) zone. The two last zones are highlighted in the
picture. Figure 8(c) is taken on the scale 200× (enlarging)
corresponds to the bind zone; the joint is severely deformed
with a very refined and equiaxed grain structure due to the
thermomechanical stir and dynamic recrystallization effects.
The same remarks are observed by Xu et al. [22, 23].
In Fig. 9, taken on the scale 50× for AA7075-T6 join,
a light asymmetry is observed between the advancing and
retreating sides. Both TMAZ and the nugget zone are
influenced by the friction heat generated by the shoulder
and deformation induced by the pin. The effect of the pin
movement in the stirred zones can also be observed by the
change of the crystalline plans orientation. As well, there is
an important effect of shoulder surface on the top of weld
compared to the bottom caused by a bigger centrifugal force
in material flow. In addition, a much more narrow HAZ is
observed compared with fusion welding processes.
The intense plastic deformation and high temperature
affect the stirred microstructure zone with change of
the grain sizes compared to the base metal (Fig. 10).
Figure 10(c) illustrates clearly the interface nugget
zone/TMAZ (bind zone). Furthermore, some precipitate
dissolution within and around the stirred zone can occur
during the welding.
Microhardness measurements
The Vicker’s microhardness data are obtained using a
microhardness tester with a test load of 200 g and step
of 0.5 mm on polished weld surface. The average of the
microhardness in the parent metal is also included for
comparison (Figs. 11 and 12).
The microhardness data show increase in the nugget
zone and almost the same value as the parent metal. The
lowest micro-hardness is in the HAZ and TMAZ. We note
 1204 M. AISSANI ET AL.

Figure 8.—(a) Cross-section of weld joint; (b) Microstructure of the AA2024-T4 welding joint; and (c) Bind zone.
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Figure 9.—Microstructure of AA7075-T6 welding joint (50×): (a) HAZ/TMAZ and (b) TMAZ/nugget zone.

Figure 10.—Microstructure of AA7075-T6 welding joint: (a) base metal (500×); (b) nugget zone (500×); and (c) bind zone (nugget zone/TMAZ) (200×).

that the microhardness profile was strongly affected by
precipitate distribution (of some elements of alloy) rather
then grain size in the nugget zone. These observations were
confirmed also by Mishra et al. [2], where the lowest value
is approximately equal to 111 HV in AA2024-T4 (Fig. 11)
and 118 HV for AA7075-T6 (Fig. 12). For the AA7075-T6,
a strong local softening of the material occurs on the joint
due to the thermal effect of the welding process and its
chemical composition, comparing to AA2024-T4.
Further, we note that microhardness values were lower in
the retreating side than in the advancing side because the
material dragged by the shoulder during the welding from
the retreating side of the weld, around the rear of the tool,
and deposited on the advancing side.

Figure 11.—Microhardness curve across the AA2024-T4 weld.
Conclusions
To improve the efficiency of the obtained joint and,
consequently, the nugget integrity of aluminium alloys, we
have to find optimal tool geometry, the advancing and
rotational speeds, and the suited pressure. The tool was
 DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF FSW TOOL
Figure 12.—Microhardness curve across the AA7075-T6 weld.
protected by a safety system which compensates any vertical
excessive load during the welding and avoids premature
damages. Results confirm that a tri-flute type pin tool with a
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conical threaded geometry manufactured in this framework
allows produces a good weld. It allows a light increase in the
advancing speed, thanks to the reduction of the displaced
volume in the weld region, reduces the asymmetry of the
joint, and improves its mechanic properties.
At very slow travel rate, relatively high pressure, and
high rotation speed, we can obtain a better weld appearance
without void, cracking, or distortion.
Recrystallization phenomena appear in the nugget zone.
Tool geometries and suitable FSW parameters contribute to
obtain a smallest equiaxed grain size on the stirred zone.
Inhomogeneous diminution of the microhardness values is
obtained in the advancing and retreating sides. This leads to
a light decrease of the material mechanical characteristics.
In the future, we suggest carrying out an automatic
retracting pin to avoid the forming of the exit hole in the
end joint and integrating a cooling system to weld other
materials of high fusion point.
References
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