Effect of faying surfaces and characterization of aluminium AA6063–steel AISI304L dissimilar joints fabricated by friction welding with hemispherical bowl and threaded faying surfaces

This work describes the effect of newly introduced faying surfaces on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of dissimilar weld joints of AA6063 and AISI304L alloys that are fabricated through the rotary friction welding process (RFW). The experiments were done as six different experimental methods (‘A’ to ‘F’) at 1300 rpm rotation, 18 MPa friction pressure (FP), 24 MPa upset pressure (UP) and 5 s friction time (FT) with the faying surfaces of hemispherical bowl and thread of 1 mm pitch on the weld specimens. The fabricated joints and the weld zones were characterized by macro and microstudy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) spectrums, tensile properties, Vickers microhardness, impact toughness and fractography. The results showed that these faying surface modifications strengthen the bonding between the weld specimens and influences the performance of the joints. The hemispherical bowl showed better results than the threaded surfaces. Axial shortenings were within the acceptable limit in the range of 20–27 mm. Macro and microstructural studies showed the defect-free weld joints and the strong bonding between AA6063 and AISI304L alloys. The hemispherical faying surface on AISI304L alloy formed a U-shaped weld interface (WI) in the dissimilar joints. EDS proved the formation of the Fe–Al intermetallic and the element ‘O’ at weld zone. The joint efficiency for all the methods was around ≥100%. Maximum tensile strength was recorded as 238 MPa for method F. The threaded surface showed good hardness property nearby WI, and method A yielded maximum impact toughness for the joint.