Materials Transactions, Vol. 49, No. 5 (2008) pp.

1137 to 1141 Special Issue on Platform Science and Technology for Advanced Magnesium Alloys, IV #2008 The Japan Institute of Metals

Some Characteristics of AZ31/AZ91 Dissimilar Magnesium Alloy Deposit by Friction Surfacing

Dai Nakama* , Kazuyoshi Katoh and Hiroshi Tokisue
College of Industrial Technology, Nihon University, Narashino 275-8575, Japan
Monolayer friction surfacing was performed using a numerical controlled full automatic friction welding machine for AZ31 magnesium alloy plate used for substrate and AZ91 magnesium alloy casting bar used for consumable rod. Eect of the surfacing conditions on structures and mechanical properties of deposit were investigated. It was clearly observed that the circular pattern appeared on the surface of deposit by the rotation of coating rod. Microstructures of deposit showed ner structure than that of both base metals, and the cast structure was disappeared. Hardness of the deposit showed higher value than that of the substrate. Wear resistance of the deposit was improved in comparison with the substrate. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MC200779] (Received October 5, 2007; Accepted January 28, 2008; Published March 12, 2008) Keywords: friction surfacing, magnesium alloy, microstructures, hardness, wear test

1.

Introduction
AZ91 AZ31

Table 1 Materials Al

Chemical composition of base metals. (%) Zn Mn Si Cu Fe Ca Ni Tr. Mg Bal.

Friction surfacing is proposed as one of the surface modication methods to produce thick layer on the substrate. It is a solid state process with a frictional heat that bonds the coating to the substrate without problems such as porosities or slag inclusions.1) And the function by surfacing dissimilar materials to the material surface to be modied takes place in solid state. Therefore, minimal thermal eects on base materials can be anticipated. The authors studied the eect of surfacing conditions on both the shape of deposit and mechanical properties of friction surfaced material combined by aluminum alloy plate and bar.2,3) As a result, the thickness of deposit was controlled if the appropriate surfacing conditions were chosen, and it was claried that good deposit was obtained. The similar friction surfaced material using 5052 aluminum alloy plate and bar was possible to form a deposit with the ne structure on the substrate. However, softening area has been observed in the vicinity of deposit on the substrate. It is signicant to do surface modication by friction surfacing using a hard material without damaging a characteristic of matrix. The authors studied the friction surfacing that is combined by 5052 aluminum alloy plate and 2017 aluminum alloy bar. As the results, it was claried that hard surface deposit was obtained.3) In the other, magnesium alloys increase their consumption with the purpose of light weighting, hence a study on the friction surfacing of magnesium alloy is necessary, however there are few studies on them.4) In addition, it is predicted that friction surfacing is dicult as for the magnesium alloy which the movement of faying surface to the axial direction to be seen in stud friction welding is hard to produce.5) In this study, dissimilar friction surfacing was conducted with AZ31 magnesium alloy plate as a substrate and cast AZ91 magnesium alloy bar as a coating material. Eect of rotational speed of rod on the structures and mechanical properties of friction surfaced material has been studied.
*Graduate

8.83 0.62 0.20 0.01 0.002 3.5 1.3 1.0 0.05 0.05

0.005 0.04 0.005 Bal.

Table 2 Mechanical properties of base metals. Materials AZ91 AZ31 Tensile strength (MPa) 148 244 Elongation (%) 2.9 16.8 Hardness (HK0.01) 76.2 51.1

Table 3 Rotation speed Friction pressure Traverse speed Preheating time

Friction surfacing conditions. N P f t (min1 ) (MPa) (mm/s) (s) 1000, 1250, 1500 40 5 5

2.

Experimental Procedure

Student, Nihon University

AZ31 magnesium alloy plate of 6 mm thickness as a substrate was machined to 50 mm width and 150 mm length. AZ91 magnesium alloy casting bar of 18 mm diameter and 100 mm length was used as a consumable rod. Chemical compositions and mechanical properties of both base metals are summarized in Table 1 and 2, respectively. Friction surfacing was performed using a numerical controlled fully automatic friction welding machine. The friction surfacing was conducted by the restriction length of consumable rod (i.e., the surfacing was terminated when 30 mm of consumable rod was consumed or a maximum feed length of 90 mm in relation to the substrate.) was attained. By referring to the results of preliminary experiments,2,4) the friction surfacing was performed under the surfacing conditions shown in Table 3.

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D. Nakama, K. Katoh and H. Tokisue

Observation of the appearances, macro- and microstructures, hardness tests and wear test using an Ohgoshi-style wear tester were conducted at room temperature. The counter material for the wear test with 30 mm in diameter and 3 mm in thickness was made of spheroidal graphite cast iron. The wear test conditions are shown in Table 4. Temperature during friction surfacing was measured with thermocouples. The measurement positions are shown in Fig. 1.

3.

Results and Discussions

Table 4 Friction load Friction speed Friction distance P0 V L0

Wear test conditions. (N) (m/s) (m) 20.6, 31.4, 61.8 1.97 200

Fig. 1

Measurement positions of temperature.

3.1 Observations of appearance and shape of deposits The appearance of deposit is shown in Fig. 2. A circular pattern due to the rotation of consumable rod was observed on the surface of deposit regardless of rotational speed. The circular patterns are similar to those appeared on the surface of aluminum alloy deposits.2,3) The deposit has a tendency to incline toward the same direction as the rotational direction of the consumable rod and the surfacing direction (advancing side: AS, and in the surfacing direction opposite to them which is called retreating side: RS). This may be due to the dynamic relationship between direction of rotation and traveling direction of consumable rod. The force on the advancing side of the surfaced area in this experiment will be generated in the direction of rotation, which the consumable rod is shifted forward. On the retreating side, the force will be generated in the direction in which the consumable rod is shifted backward. Therefore, the consumable rod was shifted on the advancing side. A similar tendency was report for the case of substrate and bar made of a 5052 aluminum alloy plate and 2017 aluminum alloy respectively.3) The eect of rotation speed of consumable rod on the thickness, width, and length of deposit are shown in Fig. 3. The thickness of deposit decreased with increasing rotation speed of consumable rod. The width of deposit tended to decrease with an increase of the rotation speed. This might be attributed to that width of the deposit is decreased by a decrease in the closure area of substrate and consumable rod. For the identical reason for the decrease in the closure area seen during friction with increasing rotational speed of

Fig. 2 Appearances of deposit.

Some Characteristics of AZ31/AZ91 Dissimilar Magnesium Alloy Deposit by Friction Surfacing

1139

120

20

Length, Ld /mm

Surfacing efficiency (%)

110 100 90 80 20

15

10

Width,Wd /mm

15

10

0 800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Rotational speed,
5
Fig. 4

N /min-1

Thickness, Td /mm

Result of surfacing eciency.

0.6 0.4 0.2 0 800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Rotational speed,
Fig. 3 Size of deposit.

N /min-1

consumable rod which is exhibited during friction welding.6) The ideal length of the deposit is 108 mm that is calculated from the feed distance and the diameter of the consumable rod. The eect of the rotational speed on the length of deposit was small, and the length reached almost 108 mm under all conditions. These tendencies are similar to those observed in aluminum alloy deposit, however the thickness of deposit

was thinner and the width of deposit was narrower in comparison with the aluminum alloy deposit. The surfacing eciency was determined based on the assumption that the weight ratio of the consumable rod before and after surfacing is associated with the shape of deposit. The results of measurements of surfacing eciency are shown in Fig. 4. The surfacing eciency was lowered with increasing rotational speed of the consumable rod. This tendency is similar to that observed in the friction surfacing using an aluminum alloy. The surfacing eciency is remarkably small as 20%60% of that of the aluminum alloy deposit. It is considered that the dierence of the surfacing eciency of both materials was due to a dierence of the ductility that aected the movement of the faying surface. 3.2 Microstructures of deposits Microstructures of base metals and deposit are shown in Fig. 5. The deposit showed ner structure than those of both

Fig. 5

Microstructures of deposit.

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D. Nakama, K. Katoh and H. Tokisue

base metals, in addition cast solidied structure observed in the base metal of rod was not observed in the deposit. The weld interface can be clearly distinguished between the deposit and the substrate. Although observations of weld penetration of coating material into a substrate have been reported in surfacing by fusion welding.7) However, on the present friction surfacing, which is a solid-state surface modication technology, penetration of the coating material into the substrate was not observed. In addition, no mechanically mixed layer as represented for the case of aluminum alloy3) was observed at the weld interface between the deposit and the substrate. 3.3 Temperature histories Figure 6 shows temperature-time curves during friction surfacing at the measurement points shown in Fig. 1. The temperature of each measurement point rose with an approach of the coating rod and reached at the highest

temperature right after the coating rod has passed by. This tendency was similar to friction surfaced aluminum alloy using a 5052 aluminum alloy plate and bar.2) And the highest temperature of each measurement point became higher with it leaving from a starting point, and the highest temperature of 538 K was observed at 75 mm from the starting point. This was probably due to temperature-rise which becomes big by heat conduction with leaving the start point. The maximum temperature of surfacing process was lower than that in the case of friction surfacing by aluminum alloy.2,3) This is because melting point of AZ31 and AZ91 magnesium alloy were lower than those of 5052 and 2017 aluminum alloys. 3.4 Hardness and wear tests Hardness distributions of deposit were shown in Fig. 7. In Fig. 7(a), hardness values have the unevenness like a base metals in both places, but no clear change was observed for

Amount of specific abrasion, Ws / 10-6 mm 2 kg-1

600

Temperature, T/K

500

Distance from start position A : 0mm B : 25mm C : 50mm D : 75mm

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 10
process. Fig. 8 Results of wear test. (N 1000 min1 )

: AZ31 Base metal : AZ91 Base metal : Deposit

400

300 0 50 100 150 200

Surfacing time, t / s
Fig. 6 Temperature-time (N 1000 min1 ) histories of friction surfacing

20

30 40 50 Friction load, P0 /N

60

70

(a) 140 Hardness (HK0.01) 120 100 80 60 40 0

Hardness (HK0.01)

: Weld interface : Deposit : Substrate

(b) 140 120 100 80 60 40 1

Deposit

Substrate

40 60 20 80 100 Distance from start position, L /mm

Fig. 7

1 2 3 4 0 Distance from weld interface, L /mm

Hardness distributions ob deposit. (N 1000 min1 )

Some Characteristics of AZ31/AZ91 Dissimilar Magnesium Alloy Deposit by Friction Surfacing

1141

Fig. 9

Appearances of wear tested specimen. (N 1000 min1 )

the hardness distribution. In Fig. 7(b), the hardness of deposit was higher than that of the substrate. Hardness change such as softened area like an aluminum alloy deposit on substrate could not be recognized. Hardness of the deposit showed higher value than that of the AZ91 magnesium alloy base metal. The hardness distribution is similar to that of AZ31 magnesium alloy friction welded to AZ91 magnesium alloy castings.5) Dierence in hardness of the deposits was considered to be cast structure of the AZ91 magnesium alloy base metal which is consumable rod became the ne structure by friction surfacing. Results of wear tests are shown in Fig. 8. Specic wear of both base metals tended to increase with increasing friction load, and little dierence of specic wear values between the materials was obtained. Specic wear of the deposit showed lower value than those of both base metals. It was clear that friction surfacing improved the wear resistance. It is considered that the deposit became to have ne structure and hence of hardness. Surfaces of wear tested specimen were shown in Fig. 9. In case of a friction load of 6.3 kg, width of wear mark on both base metals were large, while the deposit showed smaller width and this value was the same as that of base metals at a low friction load. 4. Conclusions

using a coating rod. The inuence of surfacing conditions on structure and mechanical properties of the friction surfaced material has been investigated. The following results were obtained. 1) The circular pattern due to the rotation of consumable rod was clearly observed on the surface of deposit. 2) The cast structure which was observed in AZ91 alloy base metal was not observed in the deposit. Microstructure of the deposit was ner than that of the consumable rod and substrate. 3) The highest temperature during surfacing process was 538 K at 75 mm position from the starting point. 4) Hardness of the deposit was higher than that of the AZ91 magnesium alloy base metal. 5) The deposit showed higher wear resistance than those of both base metals.

REFERENCES
1) E. D. Nicholas and W. M. Thomas: Weld. J. 65 (1986) 1727. 2) H. Sakihama, H. Tokisue and K. Katoh: Mater. Trans. 44 (2003) 2688 2694. 3) H. Tokisue, K. Katoh, T. Asahina and T. Ushiyama: Mater. Trans. 47 (2006) 874882. 4) H. Sakihama, H. Tokisue and K. Katoh: Proc. of The 100th Conf. Jpn. Inst. Light Met. (2001) 223224. 5) K. Katoh, T. Asahina and H. Tokisue: J. Jpn. Inst. Light Met. 44 (1994) 562566. 6) A. Hasui and S. Fukushima: J. Jpn. Weld. Soc. 44 (1975) 10051010. 7) Y. Kanbe et al.: Quart. J. Jpn. Weld. Soc. 11 (1993) 247253.

Friction surfacing was conduced using AZ31 magnesium alloy plate as a substrate and AZ91 magnesium alloy bar