Abstract The vast majority of advanced industrialized products are formed from the joining of individual components. However, when the joining must be permanent, welding is one of the most used processes. Among the welding processes, the Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process stands out in this category specially for producing joints with extremely high mechanical resistance and low distortions leading to modern automotive and aerospace applications. This study aimed to evaluate the mechanical and corrosion properties of FSW welded profiles of Aluminum AA6005 alloy as a function of the welding parameters. For this purpose, tensile and microhardness tests were performed, followed by a detailed microstructural analysis. The results showed that the high rotational speed provided tunnel-type defects which impair the mechanical properties, leading to a loss of efficiency. The corrosion properties results showed that the different welding conditions do not significantly affect corrosion characteristics but the changes observed are related to the dispersion of the precipitates in the Al matrix.

This study presents the effect of the welding parameters variation on the results of forces, temperature, residual stresses and Vickers micro hardness of dissimilar butt joints of AA2024-T3 and AA7475-T761 welded by friction stir welding (FSW). The tool rotational speed, feed rate and tool tilt angle were investigated using the Design of Experiments method. The obtained results of penetration force, temperature in the weld zone compared with the microscopic analysis of the microstructure showed that it is necessary a minimum amount of force and heat input to obtain a defect free weld zone. It was also notable that, friction stir welding has a wide stability range of its most significant parameters - rotational speed and feed rate - which grantee this minimum condition. Micro hardness’ profiles showed the effect of the grain size refinement towards the thermo-mechanically affected zone as well as, the effect of recrystallization inside the nugget. Residual stresses’ profiles showed a tensile stress peak at the shoulder contact area due the pressure with the base material on thermo-mechanically affected zone and the stress relief effect caused by high temperatures in the nugget resulting in a decrease in residual stress value. The most significant variables for residual stress results were rotational speed of the tool and welding feed rate, once their interaction rule the heat input in the weld zone.

Many components for aerospace and automotive industries are currently manufactured using superplastic forming, being the fine-grained aluminum alloy AA5083 widely used for this proposes. However, the development of cavitation voids is inherent in this process and reduces the ductility of the alloy. Back pressure can be used to diminish the growth of cavitation void. The experimental conditions used in this work are in the best condition for nucleation and grow of cavitation, because of the coarse grain size (81 µm), large second phase particles (9 µm) and elevated test temperature (570ºC) in a AA 5083. Domes were formed at 570ºC and at a strain rate of 5x10-5 s-1 by blow forming with and without back-pressure. They were compared in terms of their final shape, thickness distribution, and quantity of cavitation voids. The effectiveness of the usage of back pressure to reducing the quantity of cavitation void was analyzed.