Post-Weld Heat Treatment Effects on Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of AA6061-T6 Butt Joints Made by Friction Stir Welding at Right Angle (RAFSW)

Abstract

Friction stir welding (FSW) provides users with many advantages over fusion welding techniques. Nevertheless, it is not widely employed in current industry mainly due to high equipment costs and royalties. To overcome these issues, a low-cost FSW technique operated at a right angle, called RAFSW, has recently been developed by our research team. To make the RAFSW technique reliable for potential users, we are going to analyze the effect of various post-weld heat treatments (PWHT) on the mechanical and physical properties of the RAFSW joints. To this end, optimized process parameters are used to weld butt joints of an AA6061-T6 alloy. The joints were characterized using a tensile test, a micro-hardness test, and metallography techniques. The most efficient aging time was obtained for various aging temperatures. Moreover, it was found that artificial aging at 220 °C for 30 min could be used as a fast and cost-effective artificial aging PWHT for the industrial sector. In addition, the repeatability of the PWHTs were demonstrated by studying the effect of waiting time prior to the artificial aging. Finally, it was revealed that a single fast artificial aging process is more beneficial than solubilizing followed by an artificial aging process in terms of tensile properties, consumed time, and cost.