Friction Stir Spot Welding of Advanced High Strength Steels

Download or read book Friction Stir Spot Welding of Advanced High Strength Steels written by Jeffrey M. Rodelas and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The application of friction stir spot welding (FSSW) for joining advanced high strength steel (AHSS) offers improvements in automobile fuel economy and crashworthiness. FSSW is a solid-state process and therefore bypasses liquid phases that form during conventional resistance spot welding. This process eliminates detrimental solidification weld defects such as cracking and debonding. A hybrid hi-material FSSW tool comprised of cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Co) was bonded to a tungsten-nickel-iron heavy alloy (WHA). A unique sinterbonding process was used to bond the two materials. Sinterbonding WC-Co powder to WHA, using hot pressing to apply pressure, resulted in an ideal consolidated interface. Thermodynamic analyses showed cobalt-rich eta-phase carbides are favored to form at the interface due to a reduction in carbon activity. The mechanical performance of FSSW welds on various AHSS was evaluated. For constant FSSW parameters, martensitic AHSS (M190) did not result in higher lap shear strengths (LSS) compared to dual phase AHSS (DP 590) which has less than half the tensile strength M190. The results suggest that higher strength materials are more resistant to material flow under the tool during welding, which results in smaller bonded regions and LSS. The formation of a strength-reducing soft ferrite layer originating from the sheet faying surfaces was investigated for a martensitic AHSS. A series of welds with varying process times (i.e., varying total energy input) was performed to investigate welding parameter effects on the ferritic layer formation. For the conditions explored, the extent of ferrite formation was dependent on oxygen availability"--Abstract, leaf iv.