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Welding International
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Application of friction stir welding to the car body

H Hori & H Hino
a b

Nippon Light Metal Co. Ltd.

Nippon Light Metal Co. Ltd. Published online: 08 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: H Hori & H Hino (2003) Application of friction stir welding to the car body, Welding International, 17:4, 287-292, DOI: 10.1533/wint.2003.3101 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1533/wint.2003.3101

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Welding International 2003 17 (4) 287292 Selected from Journal of Light Metal Welding and Construction 2002 40 (8) 354359; Reference JL/02/8/354; Translation 3101

Application of friction stir welding to the car body

H H O R I and H H I N O
Nippon Light Metal Co. Ltd.

Introduction Downloaded by [b-on: Biblioteca do conhecimento online UC] at 03:22 25 February 2014 Friction stir welding 1 (FSW), which was developed by TWI, is suitable for the joining of aluminium alloys and has been subjected to research and development in various fields. It has been applied to the components and members of ships, aerospace-related vessels and equipment, and automobiles. 2,3 As shown in Fig. 1, FSW is a very simple joining method. The tool rotating at a high speed is made to touch the surface of the material to be welded. This induces frictional heat to be generated and softens the material to be welded. Then, when the pin moves away, the material to be welded is buried in the space created owing to the plastic flow.

2 Equipment for three-dimensional FSW.

Workpiece Test shoulder Welding pin with special profile

1 Schematic diagram of FSW.

Thus, FSW is solid-state welding and therefore it does not cause weld cracking and blowholes as seen in fusion welding. For this reason, FSW makes it possible to weld materials which are difficult to fusion-weld and hence it is applicable to all the aluminium alloys. Furthermore, it can weld from thin sheets to thick plates by altering the pin which determines the depth of welding, and also the shape of the shoulder which controls the outflow of the material. However, since FSW is a pressure welding

A post reinforcement

Bonnet inner panel

Roof inner panel Tailgate inner

Dash upper & lower reinforcement panels

Suspension top

Suspension mounting reinforcement

Rear quarter reinforcement

Door inner & reinforcement Body side reinforcement

Rear floor & panel reinforcement

3 Components expected to have FSW applied to.

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method in which the tool is made to touch the material to be welded, it is necessary to use a jig to receive the pressing force of the tool or to have a joint structure. For this reason, most of the service FSW-applied products are large-scale products which are welded by setting the work piece on to high-rigidity jigs. Also, main applications are the ones welded in one-dimensional form because the tool is tilted. 4 Figure 25 shows the facility under development for FSW welding of three-dimensional members. Since the counterforce from the tool is fairly high, it is difficult to weld with robots, and hence a CNC machine is being developed which combines a high-power actuator, as shown in Fig. 2. Owing to the above-mentioned problems, FSW has not been applied to two-dimensional and three-dimensional members unlike fusion welding and spot welding. Therefore, the application of FSW to automobile components is tried with small-scale components such as hung-on parts, wheels and suspension parts as shown in Fig. 3. 6 The application of FSW is also examined for the joining of tailored blank materials and hems as shown in Fig. 4 and 5. 5 In this article, an introduction will be made mainly of the welding of thin sheet materials and tailored blank materials to which FSW is expected to be applied in making hung-on parts expected to be used for the aluminium body. Comparison of FSW material with other welded materials Strength Envisaging the joining of an extruded material and a sheet material in a space-frame structured vehicle, Gunnar et al produced H-shaped specimens as shown in Fig. 6 to investigate their fatigue properties in the state of shearing

6 H-shaped specimen.

Laser (full penetration) FSW with stop holes Spot weld

Laser (partial penetration) FSW (no stop holes) Self-piercing

7 PN diagram of various welded joints.

4 Tailored blank.

stress. 7 These specimens were comprised of 3 mm thick H-shaped extruded material and 1 mm thick 5754. The welded methods used were spot welding, piercing rivet welding, laser welding and FSW. As shown in Fig. 7, the fatigue strengths with FSW and laser welding were the highest and those of spot welded materials the lowest. The hole made by the tool for FSW at the end edge of the welded joint did not affect the fatigue strength. From the above-mentioned results, it was considered that the lap joint welded by FSW can be used for automobile parts with sufficient strength. Tensile properties of FSW, MIG and laser welded materials are shown in Table 1. 8 The material used was 4 mm thick 6N01-T5. The conditions of 1400 rpm rotational frequency and 200 mm/min. welding speed were used to produce FSW welded joints. Tensile strength and proof strength were at the same levels as those in MIG welded joints but lower than those in laser welded ones. Generally, the joint strength of FSW can be said to be about the same as or higher than that of MIG joints. However, when
Table 1 Tensile properties (shearing stress) of various welded joints
Te nsile S tre ngth N /mm2 FSW MIG La se r F S W + Age ing La se r + Age ing P a re nt Ma te ria ls 194 197 214 243 246 290 0.2% P ro o f S tre ngth N /mm2 11 0 11 7 139 205 223 267 Elo nga tio n % Jo int Effic ie nc y % 67 68 74 84 85

ng di el W

W el di ng
n io ct re di

di re ct io n

5 Application to the hem.

16.5 13.9 9.2 10.1 15.1 17.7

Friction stir welding

Length: 1 m, Thickness: 3 mm (6061 alloy)

289

Angular distortion

8 SN diagram of various welded joints.

Welded joint (surface)

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the ageing treatment of 180C x 6 hrs was carried out after welding, the joint strengths of FSW and laser welded joints became about the same. It was confirmed that the strengths of both FSW and laser welded joints would increase through ageing treatment. The SN line graph of various welded materials is shown in Fig. 8. The fatigue strength of FSW welded joints was confirmed to be higher than those of MIG and laser welded joints. The MIG and laser welded joints have reinforcements or sealing beads which may cause stress concentrations. On the other hand, with FSW joints, the welded part is flat and hence there is no place with stress concentration. This is the main reason for the difference in fatigue strength. The result of the instrumentation Charpy impact test of the joint is shown in Table 2. The material tested was 6 mm thick 6N01-T5. In MIG welding, 5356 filler wire was used. The specimens were made by facing the top and bottom surfaces of the weld joint. The FSW weld joints showed high Charpy values at both the nugget and the HAZ. The Charpy value of the nugget of the FSW joint was three times that of the bead of the MIG weld joint. Thus, the FSW weld joint was confirmed to have very high toughness. The above-mentioned results confirmed that the tensile property, fatigue strength and toughness in FSW are about the same as or higher than those in conventional welding. Therefore, the method can be judged to be sufficiently applicable to the welding of automobile parts and car bodies. Welding deformation, gap tolerance and the surface state of the welded joint The state of deformation and the amount of angular
Table 2 Toughness of FSW and MIG welded joints
C ha rp y va lue , J/c m2 FSW N ugge t HAZ Be a d HAZ 47.5 or highe r 15 26.3 33.7 mas, N /mm2 37.5 or highe r 40.4 43.5 33.7 15.2 6.2 26.4 De sc e nd ing tilt, N /mm/mm2

MIG welding

YAG laser welding

9 Comparison of welding distortion and angular distortion (6061 material, 3 mm thickness, 200 mm width, 1000 mm length).

distortion for laser and MIG weld joints and FSW joints are compared in Fig. 9. 9 The angular distortion of FSW joints is very small, that is, 1/30 that of MIG joints and 1/ 20 that of laser joints. This is because FSW is a solidphase welding method, hence the temperature at the weld is lower than that in fusion welding and also, at FSW joint, compressional residual stress is generated. The effect of the pins centre deviation and the root gap on the quality of the welded joint is shown in Fig. 10. 10 The tool used was of 15 mm shank diameter and 5 mm pin diameter. With 3.5 mm thick sheets, the amounts of centre deviation and root gap were 2 mm and 0.5 mm respectively. When the root gap exceeds the threshold, surface defects caused by the lack of material at the welded joint were generated. The reason why the threshold of the root gap for 3.5 mm thickness was higher than that for 5 mm thickness was considered to be that the area of the root gap for 3.5 mm thickness is larger than that for 5 mm thickness. The gap tolerance is affected by the shape of the tool and the FSW conditions and hence it is considered necessary to conduct a test for each product. For reference, however, the gap tolerance is generally said to be 10 % of the pin diameter. In conventional fusion welding, it is common to execute welding after degreasing with acetone, or something

MIG

Ba se ma te ria l T6

Thickness 3.5 mm

Thickness 5 mm

10 Effect of centre deviation and root gap on weld quality.

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Tensile strength, 0.2 % proof stress, N/mm 2
Rotational frequency: 1400 rpm Welding speed: 315mm/min

similar, to stabilise the quality of the welded joint. In contrast, in FSW, this kind of pre-treatment is not required. There is a study made on the effect of the surface state of the work piece on joint strength by coating the FSW welded joint with cooling oil.11 It reported that a reduction in tensile strength was only ca. 5 %. From this result, it is considered unneccessary to conduct careful pretreatment in FSW unlike fusion welding. Characteristics of FSW welded thin sheets The effect of FSW conditions on tensile properties and Erichsen values was investigated by using 5052-H34 materials of 1 mm and 2 mm thickness. The cross-sectional structures of the 1 mm thick and 2 mm thick FSW weld joints are shown in Fig. 11. With both 1 mm thick and 2 mm thick joints, it was confirmed that the setting of the optimum conditions enables good quality joints to be obtained. With 1 mm thick joint, kissing bond (thermo-compression bonded part) occurred at the bottom section of the weldment. As shown with F-3 weldment in Fig. 11, it is possible to eliminate kissing bond almost totally by optimising the length of the pin and the FSW conditions. When the sheet thickness is 1 mm, the optimum range of the amount of tool penetration is very narrow. When the amount of penetration is changed by 0.1 mm to the optimum penetration amount, either defects occur at the welded joint or the work piece is cut with the tool shoulder. Contrastingly, the range of the amount of tool-penetration which enables good bonding with 2 mm thickness is wider than that for 1 mm thickness. The smaller the sheet thickness, the narrower the range of welding conditions tends to become. The effect of the amount of tool penetration on tensile properties is shown in Fig. 12. When the penetration amount was reduced by 0.1 mm from the optimum penetration amount, elongation and tensile strength decreased. When it was increased by 0.1 mm, elongation increased slightly. Since kissing bond is assumed to change when the amount of the tool penetration is varied, the results of the tensile test were rearranged according to the length of the kissing bond as shown in Fig. 13. 0.2 % proof stress is not affected by the length of kissing bond. However, as the length of the kissing bond increased, elongation and tensile strength decreased. This is

K Tensile

strength  0.2 % proof stress

F Elongation

Penetration, mm

12 Effect of tool penetration amount on tensile properties.

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Tensile strength, 0.2 % proof stress, N/mm 2

Rotational frequency: 1400 rpm Welding speed: 315 mm/min

K Tensile strength  0.2 % proof stress F Elongation

Kissing bond length, m

13 Effect of kissing bond length on tensile properties.

Rotational frequency: 1400 rpm Welding speed: 315 mm/min

KSheet  Sheet

thickness 1 mm thickness 2 mm

Erichsen value, mm

Base material

Length of unwelded part, m

14 Effect of kissing bond length on Erichsen value.

2 mm

500 m

Kissing

100 m

11 Cross-sectional macrostructure of FSW welded joint (sheet thickness 1 mm and 2 mm).

presumably because, as the length of the kissing bond increased, the weldment was destroyed owing to lower elongation, and hence tensile strength was reduced. The relationship between the length of kissing bond and Erichsen values is shown in Fig. 14. The Erichsen value was also found to go down as the length of kissing bond increased. When there is no kissing bond, the position of fracture in the Erichsen test was in the proximity of the punch but, as the length of kissing bond increased, fracture occurred from the kissing bond. The welded joint without kissing bond had the Erichsen level almost as high as that of the base material and therefore it is judged to be the welded joint with very high formability. From the above-mentioned results, it was confirmed

Elongation, %

Elongation, %

Friction stir welding

A Side h B Side

291

15 Cross-sectional structure of FSW welded tailored blank joint.

16 Cross-sectional macrostructure of lap joint.

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that the characteristics of FSW welded thin sheet materials are affected greatly by the length of kissing bond. Accordingly, to obtain a good welded joint, it is necessary to optimise the FSW conditions including the amount of the tool penetration and the length of the pin. Tailored blank materials The cross-sectional structure of FSW welded tailored blank material is shown in Fig. 15. This tailored blank material was welded by tilting the tool as shown in Fig. 14. These materials can be welded without any problem by optimising the shape and the angle of the tool, and the FSW conditions. Tensile properties and Erichsen values of tailored blank materials are shown in Table 3. In the welding between 5182 materials, joint efficiency was about 100 % in both FSW and laser welded joints. The elongation of the FSW joints was about 1.5 times that of laser welded joints and the Erichsen value of the FSW joints was 1 mm higher than that of the laser welded joint. Thus, the FSW joints were judged to have excellent formability. The welding between 5182-O and 6111-T4 materials could be executed without any problem, but the joint efficiency was slightly lower at ca. 91 %. At the welded joint between 5182-O and 6111-T4 materials, elongation was reduced a great deal whilst the Erichsen value was fairly high. This was considered to be because whilst distortion is localised at the HAZ of 6111-T4 in the tensile test, distortion progresses fairly evenly in the Erichsen test. From the above result, it can be assumed that FSW joints have high Erichsen values and are superior in formability, and also that the method is suitable for the welding of tailored blank materials because it enables

Table 4 Tensile strength of lap joints

We ld ing sp e e d mm/min 100 120 140 A S id e N /mm2 142 158 142 B S id e N /mm2 160 158 158

the welding of dissimilar aluminium alloys without any problems. Lap welding With FSW, the material on the bottom can be lap-welded by inserting the tool from the material on the top. The cross-sectional macrostructure at the weldment of a lap joint is shown in Fig. 16. When a lap joint is welded, since the spiral surface of the screw used in the pin and the oxide film exist almost on the same surface, only slight destruction and dispersion occur. There is a report that the pin with a groove which is machined to have the right angle to the lap surface is suitable for lap joints. 12 To apply FSW to lap joints, it is necessary to develop the shape of the tool. Tensile strengths of 2 mm thick 6061-T6 lap welded joints are shown in Table 4. The lowest value of tensile strength was obtained on the A side. The presumed reason for the fracture occuring on the A side is, as shown in Fig. 16, that the joining surface of the materials were lifted by the plastic flow of the material, and hence the h value was reduced. Also, the reason why the tensile strength became ca. 150 N/mm 2 is that the fractured part became overaged owing to the friction heat of FSW.

Table 3 Tensile properties and Erichsen value of tailored blank joints

Jo ining me tho d FSW FSW La se r UTS N /mm2 292 267 289 292 282 YS N /mm2 146 161 137 155 136 EL % 20.8 9.0 31.1 27.8 14.0 Jo ining e ffic ie nc y % 101 91 99 Eric hse n va lue 7.99 6.97 9.50 9.03 6.87

Allo y 5182O 6 111 T4 5182O 5182O 6 111 T4 5182O

Thic k ne ss, mm 1.0 1.6 1.0 1.6 1.0 1.0 0.8 1.5

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tion No. 9125978. 8, 1991 Dec. Fukuda: 'Friction stir welding technique'. Journal of Japan Welding Society , 2000 69 (7) 610. 3 Kawasaki et al : proc Conf 1st International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding. 4 Shinoda: 'Basic and application of friction stir welding'. Welding Technique , 2001 49 (6) 128132. 5 Kallee: proc Conf 1st International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding. 6 Sato et al : 'Application of aluminium extrusions to suspension arms'. IBEC98, Detroit, MI, USA, 1998 Sept. 7 Leijon et al : International Conference on Joints in Aluminium, Munich, Germany 2001 March 2830. 8 Hori et al : proc conf 1st International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding. 9 Okamura: 'Characteristics of friction stir welding and the state of its application in Japan'. Journal of Japan Welding Society , 2000 69 (7) 1117. 1 0 Hori et al : proc conf 1st International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding. 11 Backlund: International Conference on Joints in Aluminium, Cambridge, England, 1998 April. 1 2 Enomoto: 'Performance of friction stir welded lap joints of aluminium alloys'. Light Metal Welding and Construction , 2001 39 (1) 69. 2

Conclusions The application of FSW is progressing rapidly in the shipbuilding, aerospace and automobile fields because, unlike conventional fusion welding, no blowholes or cracking occur and distortion is small but joint strength is still high. However, the application to the aluminium body has not progressed because it is difficult to apply to the welding of two and three dimensional joints. Thinking of the high potential of FSW, it is expected to expand its applications from the components required to have high quality welded joints to the products related to automobiles. Also, through the development of FSW robots, it is predicted to be applied to aluminium bodies. Downloaded by [b-on: Biblioteca do conhecimento online UC] at 03:22 25 February 2014
References
1 Thomas et al : 'Friction stir butt welding'. International Patent Application No. PCT/GB92/02203 and GB Patent Applica-