Materials Science and Engineering A349 (2003) 156 /165 www.elsevier.

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Self-optimization in tool wear for friction-stir welding of Al 6061'20% Al2O3 MMC

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R.A. Prado, L.E. Murr *, K.F. Soto, J.C. McClure

Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968-0520, USA Received 25 March 2002; received in revised form 17 September 2002

Abstract Tool wear and the rate of wear for hardened, steel, right-hand screws rotating at 1000 rpm in the friction-stir welding of Al 6061'/ 20 vol.%Al2O3 particles were observed to decrease for increasing weld or traverse speeds. When sufficiently long traverse distances were reached, tool wear became small or negligible, and an optimized tool shape emerged. This shape was slightly different at 6 and 9 mm s (1 weld speeds but in each case a self-optimized tool shape emerged. This self-optimizing wear phenomena and tool shape result by counter motions of solid-state flow regimes which depend upon both tool rotation speed and actual weld traverse speed. Although sound, porosity-free welds are obtained with both the unworn, threaded pin tool and the worn, unthreaded pin tool, microstructures vary and the worn pin tool produced a narrower heat affected zone with less drop in hardness than the threaded pin tool. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Friction-stir welding; Al2O3; Self-optimization

1. Introduction There are a number of friction-based joining and processing technologies including friction surfacing and transformation processing, friction extrusion processing, rotary friction welding, and friction-stir welding (FSW) and processing (FSP) among others [1]. Most of these technologies have been invented and developed at the welding institute [2 /4]. The friction contribution to these processes varies somewhat consistent with the tool consumption. For example, in friction surfacing, the consumable, in the form of a solid bar or tube, is actually deposited as a surface layer as a consequence of the erosive wear of the consumable, and its incorporation into, or deposition onto, the original surface. In rotary friction welding a so-called third body region is formed at the contact of one rotating body with another stationary body to produce what several authors have referred to as a quasi-hydrodynamic bearing zone [1,5 /

* Corresponding author. Tel.: '/1-915-747-0520; fax: '/1-915-7478036.

7]. This zone consists microstructurally of dynamically recrystallized (DRX) material which creates a solid-state flow regime where friction is minimal. In FSW [8] and FSP [9] there is usually no observable tool consumption (especially for aluminum alloys) and as a consequence no significant friction promoting wear; although frictional heating occurs [10]. The rotating pin tool is surrounded by a similar quasi-hydrodynamic bearing region composed of DRX material [11 /16]. Aside from preliminary studies the authors have reported recently for metal-matrix composite (MMC) FSW [17,18], there do not appear to be any systematic studies of tool wear in FSW or FSP in spite of the fact that the FSW of materials like stainless steel and MMCs can exhibit considerable tool consumption [19]. Some attention has been given to tool development and tool geometry in order to minimize tool consumption (or wear) and optimize the FSW process [19,20]. Our preliminary research [17] suggested that tool wear reached a maximum for tool rotation speeds E/1000 rpm, but the wear rate, denoted as tool consumption (%)/cm traverse, was reduced by a factor of 5 when the traverse speed (or weld speed) was increased from 60 mm min (1 (2.4 in. min (1) to 180 mm min(1 (7.1

0921-5093/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 5 0 9 3 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 7 5 0 - 5

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Fig. 1. Examples of FSW features and microstructures for Al 6061-20% Al2O3 MMC. (a) Simple FSW process schematic showing weld conventions. The tool (or head-pin (HP)) rotates at a speed R and traverses the workpiece material at a speed T . (b) FSW cross-section for weld traverse of 3 cm at R0/1000 rpm, T0/1 mm s (1. (c) FSW cross section for weld traverse of 3 cm at R0/1000 rpm, T0/3 mm s (1. (d) FSW cross-section for weld traverse of 3 cm at R0/1000 rpm, T0/6 mm s (1. (e) MMC workpiece microstructure showing Al2O3 particle distribution. (f) MMC FSW zone center microstructure in (b).

in. min (1). In addition, the rate of tool wear appeared to decline as welding progressed [18]. In the present study we extended our previous study of tool wear in the FSW of an Al 6061'/20 vol.%Al2O3

MMC with special emphasis on observations of tool consumption (or wear) at increased weld (traverse) speeds. In this study we observed that at relatively high welding speeds (6 mm s (1 or E/14.2 in. min (1)

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Fig. 2. Tool (nib) sequences showing MMC /FSW wear features for constant tool rotation of 1000 rpm and weld traverse distances noted (in meters) for specic weld speeds. (a) T0/1 mm s (1; (b) T0/3 mm s (1; (c) T0/6 mm s (1; (d) T0/9 mm s (1.

and after an initial wear period, tool wear essentially ceased. This remarkable phenomenon was observed to be associated with the development of specific tool shapes or geometries characterizing a self-optimization process.

2. Experimental methods A commercial MMC: 6061-T6 aluminum'/20 vol.%Al2O3 particles in plate form 0.5 cm thick was variously friction-stir welded by butting two surfaces

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Fig. 3. (a) Pin tool wear as a percent of initial pin shape projections (Fig. 2) versus corresponding MMC /FSW linear traverse in cm at various weld speeds noted. Tool rotation constant at 1000 rpm. The arrows on each curve indicate constant weld times of 400 s. (b) Wear rate (% wear/cm) versus weld speed or traverse speed, T , from (a).

or by simply plunging a rotating pin tool into the material supported by a steel backing plate. The tool consisted of a 1/4 /20, O-1 AISI oil hardened tool steel screw nib heat treated to an initial Rockwell C hardness of 62; with a 0.63 cm diameter and right-hand threads. The slightly foreshortened nib was mounted in a 1.9 cm diameter milling chuck and advanced with a 18 lead angle in a modified Gorton/Mastermill milling machine. A commercial Al-6061 plate was also welded in order to act as a wear reference. However, as in previous studies [17,18], no measurable tool wear was detected. Previous studies [17,18] determined that the highest wear rate occurred at a tool rotation speed of 1000 rpm. Consequently this study utilized this tool rotation speed. A range of traverse or welding speeds were examined in this study: 1 mm s (1 (60 mm min(1), 3 mm s (1 (180 mm min(1), 6 mm s (1 (360 mm min (1), and 9 mm s (1 (540 mm min (1 or /21.3 in. min(1).

The wear behavior was measured utilizing a technique developed previously [17,18]. This involved traverses of 15 cm workpiece lengths which allowed the tool to be photographed after each standard (15 cm) pass. The tool or pin photographs were made in a plane parallel to the chuck axis, enlarged to a standard magnification, and cut out. The cut out photographs were weighed and compared with the original tool photograph as a percent of weight loss which was shown to compare very closely to actual tool weight loss by running a calibration series where tools (pins) were sacrificed and weighed; with the weight loss measured by comparing with the original tool weight. Several experiments were also repeated at the various weld speeds where the tool (or pin) was frozen into the workpiece (by stopping the process) in order to observe the weld-related flow phenomena within the workpiece, in connection with the specific tool geometry. It was of

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Fig. 4. Comparison of self-optimized tool shapes in the region of essentially no wear in Fig. 3. (a) and (b) correspond to linear traverse distances of 1.98 and 2.74 m respectively at 1000 rpm and 6 mm s (1 weld speed. (c) and (d) correspond to linear traverse distances of 2.9 and 3.66 m respectively at 1000 rpm and 9 mm s (1 weld speed.

special interest to observe frozen tools at the very early stages of welding in contrast to weld behavior at more advanced stages or the end of welding. In order to view sections cut through the frozen tools within the workpiece and to observe cross-section weld phenomena, sections were etched with a Kellers reagent: 150 ml H2O, 3 ml nitric acid, 6 ml hydrochloric acid, and 6 ml hydrofluoric acid at 0 8C. Rockwell E hardness measurements (using a 100 kgf (1 kN) load were made across the weld zone sections. Cross-sections were also ob-

served in a scanning electron microscope fitted with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer to examine erosion products associated with tool wear.

3. Results and discussion Fig. 1 illustrates the FSW conventions and several examples of weld cross-sections at essentially the same initial traverse distances for several traverse or weld

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Fig. 5. Optical metallography and SEM analysis of steel (Fe) tool erosion wear. R0/1000 rpm, T0/1 mm s (1. Linear traverse of 0.76 m. The insert shows the tool appearance at this traverse prior to freezing the tool. A magnied view of the wear debris shows Fe erosion particles (others marked by arrows). The Al2O3 particles are also apparent in the magnied view. Rotation and traverse conventions are noted.

speeds noted. The milling chuck shoulder compresses the surface of the workpiece and spreads the weld zone. Although we did not measure this downward force specifically, an attempt was made to keep the conditions constant. There is a considerable weld or heat affected zone (HAZ) surrounding the FSW nugget resulting by thermo-mechanical effects where the workpiece is mechanically worked and heated outside of the weld nugget [10]. Crystallographic and texture effects have also been noted in the weld zone [21]. Fig. 1(e) and (f) illustrate the homogeneous transport of the Al2O3 particles in the FSW of the MMC into the weld zone without any

noticeable attrition, by solid-state flow facilitated by dynamic recrystallization [15,17,18]. Fig. 2 illustrates some typical sequences of tool/pin photographs illustrating apparent wear. These data were used to measure tool wear and plot the curves shown in Fig. 3(a). It is observed in Fig. 3(a) that the effective tool wear (measured as a percent of photo weight change from the original tool as shown in Fig. 2) decreases for increasing welding or traverse speed. The initial wear rate (in % wear cm (1) represented by the initial slope of the corresponding curves, also decreases with weld speed as shown plotted in Fig. 3(b). However a more dramatic

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feature in Fig. 3(a) is the near cessation of tool wear at some critical welding distance for specific welding speeds of 6 mm s (1 (360 mm min(1) and 9 mm s (1 (540 mm min(1). This critical weld distance increases with weld speed but the final level of wear decreases with weld speed. The optimal shape is reached earlier at high traverse speed and there is a smaller weight loss associated with the optimal shape. The data in Fig. 3(a) can also be plotted as a function of sliding distance or time and the arrows on each curve in Fig. 3(a) indicate constant welding times of 400 s. Fig. 4 illustrates the development of stable but different tool/ pin shapes at 6 and 9 mm s (1 weld speeds respectively in Fig. 3; as a self-optimized tool geometry. That is, when this tool shape is achieved, there is little or no additional wear or shape change for constant traverse speed. It should be noted in Fig. 3(a) that beyond the arrows for the 6 and 9 mm s (1 curves the data flattens off and there is no detectable wear. Consequently, the tool shapes shown in Fig. 4(b) and (d), respectively do not change. Each data point in Fig. 3(a) essentially represents a 15 cm traverse so that between data points a new weld is made with the existing tool. It is noted in the last three data points for 6 and 9 mm s (1 traverse speeds in Fig. 3(a) that the tool shape did not change. Note also that each 15 cm traverse began with a cold tool so that the data represents a series of thermal cycling. It is well established that tool wear is more rapid at the start of the weld because everything is cold and the required weld forces are higher. As the material becomes hotter, the rotating tool can push the Al2O3 particles into the softer matrix; something that cannot happen at lower temperatures. This is consistent with the effects of travel speed and rotation speed [18]. Since for several meters of welding there was no detectable tool wear for the 6061-T6 aluminum FSW, the MMC wear was associated with abrasive Al2O3 particle erosion of the tool during the actual (initial) wear portion of the curves shown in Fig. 3 to produce the self-optimized geometry illustrated in Fig. 4. Fig. 5 shows the early tool erosion associated with a frozen nib to be characterized by the entrainment of iron fragments in the weld zone, especially concentrating at the advancing edge of the weld. This erosion wear results primarily by material flow and especially from translational or vortex flow perpendicular to the rotation plane (or parallel to the tool rotation axis) as recently discussed by Guerra et al. [16], Guerra [22], and others [23,24]. Fig. 5 shows remnants of this vortex left behind by the advancing nib. It is this flow, intersected by the rotational flow, which effectively accounts for the well known onion skin (or onion ring) appearance of the weld nugget as shown prominently in Fig. 1(b) and (c). Fig. 6 shows some simple schematic diagrams illustrating the principal flow features which are largely a

Fig. 6. Simple schematic ow diagram for tool wear in MMC /FSW, (a), and shape optimization (b). Large arrows indicate weld travere direction.

consequence of the tool threads creating translational turbulence. The resulting flow of Al2O3 particles erodes the threads and there is a corresponding reduction of vortex flow when the threads are completely worn away (Figs. 2 and 4). However, some vortex flow remains as a feature of the FSW process; and of course frictional heating continues. The eroded tool material begins to accumulate in the receding or trailing portion of the weld and is transported to the leading edge as shown in Fig. 5. The wear is also not homogeneous since, as illustrated in Fig. 5 there are regions indicative of severe erosion. The fact that erosion seems to be heavy at early frozen pin traverse regions is indicative that wear is promoted at slow rotation and weld speeds. The final, optimized tool shape therefore depends upon the actual weld speed, which influences the flow. This phenomenon is illustrated in part in the sequence of frozen pin experiments in Figs. 7 and 8. In Fig. 7, an increase in weld speed increases the weld wake or actual weld flow spacing while in Fig. 8 there is no weld wake effect when the tool becomes self optimized and there are no threads. In fact, the weld zone is completely homogeneous in the self-optimized tool geometry region (Fig. 3) shown in Fig. 8(b), except for a slight demarcation at

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Fig. 7. Comparison of frozen nib weld-wake patterns during the high wear region at the weld for different welding speeds. The rotating tool is at the left where the rotation and traverse conventions are noted. The view is transverse to Fig. 1(a) at the mid-plane through the thickness of the weld. Tool rotation speed prior to stopping was 1000 rpm and the traverse distance was 3 cm for each example. (a) T 0/3 mm s (1; (b) T0/6 mm s (1; (c) T0/9 mm s (1.

the leading edge of the weld. This feature is also illustrated in the improvement in weld-hardness performance shown in the comparative hardness profile data in Fig. 9. Note that the weld region is more uniform in Fig. 9(b) in contrast to Fig. 9(a); consistent with Fig. 8. We also note in Fig. 9 that the HAZ is harder (stronger) with the optimized tool. This implies that the tool should be shaped so as to produce some vortex flow to eliminate porosity, but the flow should be minimal in

order to reduce the HAZ size and to minimize wear. It is also noted in Fig. 9 that the hardness profiles narrow with increasing weld speed. The so-called weld wake effect as shown in Fig. 7 has been described as semicircular features by Krishnan [25] who also showed that their spacing increased with tool rotation speed and weld (traverse) speed at constant rotation speed. Krishnan [25] also showed the onion ring appearance to be associated with these features. Biallas et al. [26] found that when the weld/traverse speed was increased, these features vanished. This feature is in fact illustrated in Fig. 1(d). Threadgill [27] also noted that the onion ring formation was associated with the forward motion of the tool in one revolution. Consequently, there is other evidence that the weld or traverse speed influences flow phenomena rather dramatically as illustrated in this study (Fig. 1(b /c), Figs. 7 and 8). Mechanisms of heat generation in FSW are complex [10], but the essential driver for the shear process that generates the bulk of the heat is some friction between the tool and workpiece. This frictional heating continues even after wear effectively ceases. The reduction of flow and especially turbulent flow phenomena in the self-optimized tool effect region illustrated in Figs. 3 and 8(b) and characterized by little or no apparent tool wear, is an indication that there is no significant erosion associated with the FSW process under these circumstances. The process is described, as noted previously [11 /16], by solid-state flow accommodated by dynamic recrystallization. This flow phenomena also occurs under the shoulder at the workpiece surface because in the self-optimized regime there is also no apparent wear of the shoulder or chuck surface. The flow regime around the tool (especially notable in Fig. 7(b)), and at the chuck shoulder, occurs by dynamic recrystallization creating the quasi-hydrodynamic bearing region [1,5 /7] composed of DRX material which seems to be thicker for threaded tools where the flow is more turbulent (compare Fig. 8(a) and (b)). It would appear from this study that tool designs utilizing slightly curved frustum shapes [20] are indeed close to the optimized shapes and require less effort (and energy) to traverse a weld. However, thread or screw features seem unnecessary and may add to tool wear, especially for very hard or refractory workpiece welding or MMC welding. Future studies should also examine weld speed tool optimization at slower rotation speeds where the initial wear (or wear rate) is lower [17,18]. More uniform flow phenomena apparently promoted by smooth, frustum-like tool shapes may also influence weld performance by lowering the associated temperature especially important for age-hardenable materials [28]. This is illustrated in part in Fig. 9.

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Fig. 8. Comparison of the transverse weld zone microstructures in the wear region and no-wear or self-optimized tool shape regime of Fig. 3 for a tool rotation speed of 1000 rpm and weld or traverse speed of 540 mm min (1 (9 mm s (1) (a) 0.03 m traverse distance (b) 3.66 m traverse distance (optimized regime). Note the tool region is smaller in (b) because of the tool wear/shape change (Fig. 2(c)).

4. Conclusions The FSW of Al 6061'/20% Al2O3 MMC using threaded tool steel screw weld pins produces a selfoptimized shape with no threads which continues to produce excellent welds but without any additional tool wear or reshaping at fixed welding speeds. The selfoptimized shape changes somewhat with increasing weld speed and at a constant tool rotation speed of 1000 rpm. These observations suggest that shape-related solid-state flow control is an essential feature of FSW and especially in assuring limited tool wear and optimum, long tool life. It is especially interesting to note that tool optimization (or the rate of optimization) apparently increases with increasing weld speeds which in this study were as high as 9 mm s (1 (21.3 in. min (1) and very favorable in terms of commercial welding speeds. Even in the case of very hard MMCs, FSW can afford

essentially little or no tool consumption when tool shape is optimized. Tool optimization occurs for smooth tool shapes with no threads or screw features especially in MMC FSW.

Acknowledgements This research was supported in part by a US Department of Energy Grant DE-FC04-01AL67097 (Amendment No. A0001) and a Murchison Endowed Chair at The University of Texas at El Paso. We are grateful to David Brown for technical support in frictionstir welding and Lola Norton for SEM analysis. We thank Professor Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, University of Virginia for her critical reading of the manuscript.

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Fig. 9. Comparison of MMC /FSW mid-thickness hardness proles corresponding to initial wear and reduced or no-wear regimes in Figs. 3 and 8 above; for weld speeds noted. (a) Start of the FSW process corresponding to traverse of roughly 3 cm into the material. (b) End of the FSW process corresponding to end traverse in Fig. 3.

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