This work has the objective of quantifying the influence of the friction stir welding (FSW) technique on the mechanical properties and microstructure of an aluminium alloy 6082. FSW is a solid-state welding process developed and patented by the TWI in 1991. It emerged as a welding technique to be used for various alloys that are difficult to join with conventional techniques. The process was developed initially for aluminium alloys, but since then FSW was found suitable for joining a large number of materials catering to wide range of applications.
In the present work, sheets of aluminium alloys were friction stir-welded under various combinations of rotational and translational speeds. Investigation of the FSW parameters was carried out through varying the revolutions per minute at which the tool rotates and the feed rate at which the work piece proceeds. This work reports the results of various tests such as Vickers micro-hardness and tensile tests. And also the influence of weld parameters was discussed. The results indicate that the weld strength and the microstructure evolved during FSW are sensitive to the rotational and translational speeds. It was observed that the grain refinement is influenced by rotational speed and also by translational speed. Thus the choice of process parameters especially the rotational speed has a significant effect on the control and optimization of the process.