Abstract—Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid state welding process for joining metallic alloys and has been employed in several industries such as aerospace, marine and automotive industry for joining aluminium, magnesium and copper alloys. The various parameters such as rotational speed, welding speed, axial force and tool pin geometry play vital roles in FSW process in order to analyse the weld quality. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different rotational speed and tool pin profile on the weld quality of AA2014 aluminium which has gathered wide acceptance in the fabrication of light weight structures requiring a high strength-to-weight ratio. Five different tool pin profiles (straight cylindrical, taper cylindrical, straight cylindrical threaded, taper cylindrical threaded, taper cylindrical with concavity) were used, in this research, to fabricate the joint. The appearance of the weld is well and no obvious defect is found using these tools. The welded specimens were tested on UTM machine in order to obtain the ultimate load for getting the tensile strength of welded joint. The joint fabricated using rotational speed of 560 rpm, taper cylindrical threaded pin profile showed higher tensile strength compared to other joint.

Index Terms—Friction stir welding, Tool rotation and welding speed, Axial force, Tool geometry, Universal testing machine

Cite: Shrikant G Dalu and M T Shete, "Experimental Investigation on Effect of Rotational Speed and Tool Pin Geometry on Aluminium Alloy 2014 in Friction Stir Welding of Butt Joint," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 370-378, July 2014.