APPLICATIONS OF THE FRICTION STIR WELDING PROCESS FORTHE TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

摘要

Nowadays, the transport sector often requires weight reduction in the manufacturing of specificcomponents in order to decrease the energetic costs of the processes involved. This fact leads tothe usage of light materials like Aluminium, which is quite often difficult to weld by conventionalmethods. For the welding of Aluminium alloys, the so-called Friction Stir Welding (FSW)process shows important advantages in comparison with the conventional welding techniques.In the present work, some examples of the work carried out by Fatronik in the development offriction stir welded joints for the transport industry are shown. First, longitudinal welds ofAA6082T6 extruded profiles for the railway industry have been obtained. Butt joints of profiles 3mm thick were obtained by using continuous and discontinuous supports in the fixture. Second,welds between stiffener profiles and AA1050 sheets used in coach structures were obtained. Inthis case, 2 mm thick sheets and profiles are used and an overlapping weld is obtained. Finally,some specific devices developed for the welding of large aeronautic structures are shown.For the above mentioned applications, the optimization of process parameters is carried out bytaking into account the tool advancing and rotating speed, as well as the forces involved in theprocess. Moreover, the importance of the redesign of initial geometries for the specific adaptationto the FSW process is shown, as well as the design of specific new fixtures which are adapted tothe requirements of the process. The specific requirements of the machines used for this processhave also been studied, as well as the aspects related to process control and monitoring. For all theapplications the machine configurations required have been made.