Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349

Joining of aluminum alloy to steel by friction stir welding

Takehiko Watanabe ∗ , Hirofumi Takayama, Atsushi Yanagisawa
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University,
Ikarashi 2-nocho, Niigata 950-2181, Japan
Received 16 December 2003; accepted 21 April 2006

Abstract
The authors tried to butt-weld an aluminum alloy plate to a mild steel plate by friction stir welding, and investigated the effects of a pin rotation
speed, the position for the pin axis to be inserted on the tensile strength and the microstructure of the joint. The behavior of the oxide film on the
faying surface of the steel during welding also was examined. The main results obtained are as follows. Butt-welding of an aluminum alloy plate
to a steel plate was easily and successfully achieved by friction stir welding. The maximum tensile strength of the joint was about 86% of that of
the aluminum alloy base metal. A small amount of intermetallic compounds was formed at the upper part of the steel/aluminum interface, while
no intermetalic compounds were observed in the middle and bottom parts of the interface. The regions where the intermetallic compounds formed
seemed to be fracture paths in the joint. Many fragments of the steel were scattered in the aluminum alloy matrix and the oxide film removed from
the faying surface of the steel by the rubbing motion of a rotating pin was observed at the interface between the steel fragments and the aluminum
alloy matrix.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Joining of dissimilar metals; Friction stir welding; Steel; Aluminum alloy; Tensile strength of a joint

1. Introduction circular in cross-sectional shape. Ultrasonic welding and rolling

Energy saving and environmental preservation are important
issues that must be resolved. Since reducing the weight of vehi-
cles is one of the efficient countermeasures against them, the use
of the combination of steel and aluminum alloy has been increas-
ing in fabrication of vehicles. Under this situation, many trials
to weld steel to aluminum alloy have been conducted. However,
sound joints have not been produced so far, because hard and
brittle intermetallic compounds are formed at the weld whenever
steel was welded to aluminum by fusion welding.
At present, the following methods have been employed to pro-
duce the joint between steel and aluminum. One method utilizes
a transition joint that consists of a steel plate welded in advance
to an aluminum alloy plate by explosive bonding or rolling [1].
Others are solid phase bonding method, such as friction welding
[2], ultrasonic joining [3] and rolling [4].
However, the method using the transition joint involves some
difficulties in that the transition joint is not easy to produce and
is expensive, and the joint is limited in shape. Friction welding
has the difficulty that at least one material to be joined should be
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 25 262 7006; fax: +81 25 262 7006.
E-mail address: twatanab@eng.niigata-u.ac.jp (T. Watanabe).
also have the shortcoming that they are applicable to only thin
plate.
Recently, a new method has been tried in which the heat
conduction from a steel plate heated by a laser beam melts the
faying surface of an aluminum plate, resulting in welding the
steel to the aluminum by the molten aluminum [5]. However,
this method includes difficulties in that some brittle intermetallic
compound is still formed and it is hard to control the heat input
and the melting amount of the aluminum by laser irradiation. In
addition, laser equipment is expensive.
In this study, the authors applied friction stir welding
(FSW), which was developed by TWI [6], to weld aluminum–
magnesium alloy to steel.
2. Explanation on the rotating pin position in the
friction stir welding employed in this study
Fig. 1 shows the schematic illustration to explain the pin
position in the friction stir welding. Fig. 1(a) is a bird’s eye
schematic view of the method, and (b) is a schematic view of
the cross-section perpendicular to a weld line.
A rotating pin is plunged into the aluminum as shown in the
figure. Next, the rotating pin is pushed toward the faying surface

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.04.117
 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of a rotating pin position in this study: (a) bird’s eye schematic view of the method and (b) schematic view of the cross-section
perpendicular to weld line.
of the steel, and consequently, the oxide film is mechanically
removed from the faying surface by the rubbing motion of the
rotating pin. Aluminum alloy, in a fluid-like plastic state due
to the heat generated by friction of a rotating tool shoulder,
adheres to the activated faying surface of the steel, so that joining
between steel and aluminum is achieved. In this process, since
the rotating pin is plunged into the softer metal of aluminum,
the rotation pin has less wear.
FSW is ordinarily conducted through stirring using a rotating
pin inserted around the center of the weld line of butted base
plates. A preliminary experiment proved that when the rotating
pin was inserted around the center of the weld line between the
steel plate and the aluminum alloy plate the welding of them
could not achieved because the rotating pin was worn out in a
short duration, resulting in insufficient stirring between them.
This point will be discussed later.
3. Experimental
3.1. Materials and welding conditions
Plates of SS400 mild steel (hereafter, Fe) and A5083 (Al–4.5 mass%Mg–
0.5 mass%Mn) aluminum–magnesium alloy (hereafter, Al), 2 mm thick, were
welded. The tensile strength of A5083 base metal is about 275 MPa. The shape
and dimension of both plates is rectangular and is of 140 mm in length and
40 mm in width. The 140 mm long faying surface of each plate was polished
with 400-grit emery paper, and then it was mounted in a jig to make a butt
joint.
The rotating tool used in this study was made of heat-treated tool steel and
has a shoulder of 15 cm diameter with a pin of 2 mm diameter and was 1.9 mm
long, as shown in Fig. 1. Welds were made with a clock-wisely rotating pin
at rotation speeds of 100–1250 rpm. The pin transverse speed, welding speed,
was 25 mm/min. Al plate was located on the right as shown in Fig. 1. After the
rotating pin was inserted into Al plate, the pin was thrust toward the Fe faying
Fig. 2. Schematic illustration to explain the relationship between the pin position
and the coordinate.
343
surface to positions of −0.2 to +2 mm. (Zero is at the position where the pin side
face is just located at the Fe faying surface, and the offset is defined as shown
in Fig. 2.)
Tensile test specimens perpendicular to the weld line were machined from the
welds. The welded area was located almost right in the center of the specimen.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. The effect of a pin rotation speed on the tensile
strength of a joint
In the first place, the surface and cross-sectional structure of
welds were examined when the pin rotation speed was varied
under a pin offset of 0.2 mm. Fig. 3 shows the surface appear-
ances and cross-sectional structures of the welds. The relation
between the tensile strength of the joints and the pin rotation
speed is shown in Fig. 4.
When the pin rotation speed was 100 rpm, it was so slow that
the pin was worn out in a short time due to the lack of heat-
generation. Consequently, about a quarter of the weld line was
welded and the remainder of the weld joined only the surface
region of the weld. Therefore, the fracture path, which is shown
by a dotted line, was along the interface where there was incom-
plete fusion between Fe and Al, so that the tensile strength of
these specimens was low. A pin rotation speed of 250 rpm made
a good joint, showing the maximum tensile strength of about
86% of the Al base metal. The fracture path was along the inter-
face between Al matrix and Fe fragments (indicated by arrow in
Fig. 3) scattered in the Al matrix.
At pin rotation speeds of 500 and 800 rpm, the surface mor-
phology of the welds was similar to that of the 250 rpm case.
However, some defects, as indicated by the arrow in the cross-
section of the 500 rpm specimen, tended to occur in the Al matrix
and the joint strength of the welds was much lower than that of
the 250 rpm rotation speed.
At the faster pin rotation speed of 1250 rpm, burning occurred
during the welding process due to Mg in the Al base metal. The
welding was not completed and the joint was broken during
machining to make a tensile test specimen. The fracture surface
was colored dark brown just like something that had been burned.
According to the above results, a pin rotation speed of
250 rpm was adopted as an optimal rotation speed in welding
experiments, thereafter.
344 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349

Fig. 3. Effects of a pin rotation speed on the surface view, cross-sectional structure and fracture path of welds.

4.2. The effect of pin offset on the tensile strength of a joint
Fig. 5 shows the effect of pin offset on the tensile strength of
a joint made under the conditions where the welding speed was
25 mm/min and pin rotation speed was 250 rpm.
When the offset was zero or negative, that is to say, the side
face of the pin just contacted the Fe faying surface or was located
in Al matrix, the joint tensile strength was not so high. The
maximum strength of a joint was obtained at the offset of 0.2 mm.
As offset was increased, joint tensile strength decreased.
4.3. Offset of a pin and cross-sectional structure and
fracture path
Fig. 6 shows the cross-sectional structures and fracture path of
the joints made for various pin offsets. When the offset was zero

Fig. 4. Relationship between a pin rotation speed and the tensile strength of
joints. Fig. 5. Relationship between the offset of a pin and the tensile strength of joints.
 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349 345

Fig. 6. Effects of a pin offset on the microstructure and fracture path of welds.

or negative, removal of oxide film from the Fe faying surface was
probably insufficient. Fracture of the joint, therefore, occurred
along the interface between the Fe and Al.
As the pin offset became positive, the joint strength increased
and reached the maximum strength at the offset of 0.2 mm.
The fracture path of the joint shifted from Fe/Al interface to
Al matrix. When the offsets were 0.6 and 1 mm, Fe fragments
scattered in the Al matrix became larger in size and some voids
were formed, resulting in the decrease in the joint strength. Frac-
ture in the joint made with an offset of 1 mm occurred along a
couple of paths as shown in Fig. 6, and the pin was worn out in
a short duration. Welding with an offset of 1 mm using a pin of
2 mm in diameter corresponds to traditional FSW parameters.
However, a sound joint was not produced under this condition.
For this case, the pin was worn out in a much shorter time, and
consequently, only the upper region of the joint was welded and
the joint tensile strength was low.
4.4. Analysis and observation of cross-sectional
microstructure of a joint
The maximum tensile strength was obtained in the joint
made under the welding conditions where the welding speed
was 25 mm/min, the pin rotation speed was 250 rpm and the
pin offset was 0.2 mm. SEM observations of the microstructure
and the EDS analysis with the cross-section perpendicular to
the weld line were conducted to examine whether intermetallic
compounds were formed or not at the interface between the Fe
and Al.
Fig. 7 illustrates enlarged SEM photographs and EDS line
analyses of Fe and Al elements corresponding to the upper
region (a), central region (b) and bottom region (c) shown in
the left photograph of Fig. 7. Judging from the SEM pho-
tograph and EDS analysis, no intermetallic compounds were
formed at the central and bottom regions of the interface

Fig. 7. SEM images and line analyses of Fe and Al around the interface between steel and aluminum alloy: (a) upper region, (b) middle region and (c) bottom region.
346 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349

Fig. 8. Quantitative analyses of the phases at the positions indicated by (1) and (2).

between Fe and Al. However, the EDS line analysis of Fe and
Al suggests that intermetallic compounds are formed at the
upper region of the interface. Fig. 8 shows the EDS quantita-
tive analysis results at the points of (1) and (2) in the upper
region of the interface. The chemical compositions of points
(1) and (2) are 40.85%Fe–48.26%Al–5.73%Mg–5.16%O and
19.61%Fe–70.26%Al–5.27%Mg–4.86%O (at.%), respectively.
It is probable from the analysis and a reference of phase diagram
[7] that the intermetallic compounds of (1) and (2) are FeAl and
FeAl3, respectively. The hardness of the intermetallic compound
of (2) was HV 641.
A small amount of intermetallic compounds was observed at
the upper region of the Fe/Al interface where the temperature
was the highest during welding. As for the temperature, Ulysse
[8] has shown that the temperature at the upper region rubbed
by the shoulder of a rotating tool is higher than the other regions
in the weld.
Tensile testing of these joints showed that cracking tended
to occur initially at the upper region of the joint and propagate
toward the bottom region. The intermetallic compounds formed
at the upper region of the Fe/Al interface appear to reduce the
joint strength.
4.5. Behavior of the oxide film on the faying surface of
the steel
We conducted the following experiment to examine the
behavior of the oxide film on the faying surface of the steel
during welding. In order to make it easier to observe the oxide
film behavior, the faying surface of the steel was oxidized and the
oxide film was thickened by heating in air at 600 ◦ C for 10 min.
The cross-section of the oxidized steel is shown in Fig. 9. The
SEM image and EDS analysis of O and Fe elements show a
thickened oxide film on the steel surface. It appears from Fig. 9
that the oxide film thickness is about 5 ␮m.
The oxidized steel was butt-welded to the aluminum alloy
under welding conditions where the pin rotation speed was
250 rpm, welding speed was 25 mm/min and pin offset was
0.2 mm. A shorter pin of 1.5 mm in length was used in this case.
Fig. 10(a) shows the transverse cross-sectional view around the

Fig. 9. SEM and EDS analysis image of oxide film on the Fe faying surface heated in air at 600 ◦ C for 10 min.
 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349 347

Fig. 10. Cross-section of the interface between Al and Fe having thickened oxide film on the faying surface.

Fig. 11. Fe oxide removed from Fe faying surface was observed at the interface between Fe fragment and Al matrix.
348 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349
Fig. 12. Surface view and fracture surface of the weld when the welding direction was reversed, that is, the pin rotation direction was counterclockwise.
interface of the weld. A defect indicated by an arrow is observed
in the Al matrix, and this defect tended to occur at the end of the
pin. The dotted line in Fig. 10(a) represents the pin position when
plunged into the Al. Fig. 10(d) shows an enlarged photograph
around the interface where the end of the pin is located. The
thick black-looking phase (arrow) was identified as the oxide
film remaining on the Fe faying surface. The position of the
upper end of the remaining oxide film seems correspond to the
position of the tip position of the pin. Fig. 10(b and c) shows
enlarged photos of the upper and middle parts of the welded
interface, and indicates that no oxide film remains at the both
weld interfaces. It is evident from Fig. 10 that the rotating pin,
when pushed toward the Fe faying surface, successfully removed
the oxide film on the faying surface during welding.
Fig. 11(b and c) shows the microphotographs of Fe fragments
scattered in the Al matrix shown in Fig. 11(a). Black-looking
phases (indicated by arrows) were observed at the interface
between the Fe fragments and the Al matrix, and were iden-
tified as Fe oxide by EDS analysis. The above facts suggested
that the Fe oxide film removed by a rotating pin from the fay-
ing surface was carried away with the Fe fragments into the Al
matrix.
5. The effect of counterclockwise rotation of the pin
The effect of pin rotation direction on the joint performance
was examined by rotating the pin counterclockwise. In actual
welding, the welding was conducted in the reverse direction to
Fig. 13. SEM photographs showing steel faying surfaces before and after welding when the welding direction was reversed: (a) before welding, (b) after welding
with the offset of 0.2 mm and (c) after welding with the offset of 0.4 mm.
the welding in the previous sections. The welding conditions
were: pin diameter was 2 mm, pin rotation speed was 250 rpm
and welding speed was 25 mm/min.
The surface view of the weld made with a counterclockwise
rotating pin is shown in Fig. 12(a). It appears from the surface
view that welding was successfully achieved. However, weld-
ing was restricted to the top surface and showed little bonding
within the plate. Fig. 12(b) shows a macro-photograph of the
fracture surfaces of both Fe and Al sides. Both fracture sur-
faces look flat and there seems to be no trace of joining on the
surfaces.
The Fe faying surface polished with 400-grit emery paper
was observed before and after welding to examine the surface
morphology after rubbing by a rotating pin. Fig. 13(a and b)
shows the SEM photograph of the Fe polished faying surface
before and after welding, respectively, for the case of pin offset
of 0.2 mm. The photograph proves that the Fe polished surface
was obviously rubbed with a pin. However, welding was not
entirely achieved. Fig. 13(c) shows the Fe surface after welding
for the case of a pin offset of 0.4 mm. A more highly rubbed
Fe surface was observed, however, welding was not entirely
achieved in this case, either.
The reason why the welding was not achieved when the pin
rotation direction was counterclockwise can be explained using
the schematic shown in Fig. 14. Fig. 14(a) shows the case where
the clockwise rotating pin is welding the Fe plate mounted on the
left side and the Al plate mounted on the right side facing to the
welding direction, and Fig. 14(b) shows the case where the pin
 T. Watanabe et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 178 (2006) 342–349
Fig. 14. Schematic illustration explaining the reason why the counterclockwise rotation of a pin cannot weld aluminum to steel: (a) clockwise rotation of a pin and
(b) counterclockwise rotation of a pin.
was rotated counterclockwise. When the pin rotates clockwise,
the whirling Al in fluid-like plastic state, as shown by an arrow,
is pressed to the Fe faying surface (indicated by a bold line) that
has been already activated by the rubbing motion of the rotating
pin and adheres to the Fe, resulting in welding both plates. On the
other hand, when the welding direction is opposite, as shown in
(b), the whirling Al in a plastic flow state, as shown by the arrow,
is pressed to the Fe faying surface (indicated by a bold dotted
line) that has not been activated by the rotating pin, resulting in
no welding.
6. Conclusions
The authors applied the friction stir welding to join aluminum
alloy containing magnesium to steel. In this study, the effects of
pin rotation speed and pin offset on the tensile strength and the
structure of a joint were investigated. The following results were
obtained.
(1) Adjusting the rotating pin position to activate the faying
surface of steel enabled us to easily make a joint between
aluminum alloy and steel.
(2) There was an optimum rotation speed for a pin to make a
sound joint. A lower rotation speed gave rise to the insuffi-
cient increase in temperature at the weld, so that a pin was
worn out in a short time. At a higher rotation speed, the
temperature increase was so excessive that the magnesium
in the Al alloy burned, resulting in an unsound joint.
(3) The maximum tensile strength of a joint was obtained at
the pin offset of 0.2 mm toward steel in this study. At a
larger offset, steel pieces were scattered in aluminum alloy
matrix. These pieces became larger in size and some voids
349
were formed, resulting in the decrease in the joint tensile
strength.
(4) Intermetallic compounds were not formed at the interface
between the steel and aluminum alloy. However, a little
intermetallic compound was observed at the upper region
of the weld where the temperature was highest due to the
heat generated by the rotating tool shoulder. As a result,
these intermetallic compounds, formed at the upper region
of the Fe/Al interface, lead to a decrease in the joint strength.
(5) It was proved that the rubbing motion of a rotating pin could
remove the oxide film from the steel faying surface and the
removed oxide was carried away with steel fragments into
the aluminum matrix. In addition, it is impossible to weld
aluminum alloy to steel by the counterclockwise rotation of
a pin.
References
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[7] ASM, Binary Alloy Phase Diagrams, second ed., 1996, CD-ROM.
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