| Abstract Scope |
FSW has become well established for the fabrication of aluminium and other light metals over the thirty year period since its invention. The demonstrated benefits of the process, not only in terms of weld quality but also the ability to introduce automation and enhance the health and safety aspects of welding, have long led to a desire to utilise FSW for welding high plasticisation point metals such as nickel, titanium and steel. These developments have been held back in many cases by the difficulty in finding a suitable and reliable tool able to withstand the welding environment and be commercially viable. TWI has approached this problem by developing a tooling system incorporating a low cost, single use, replaceable insert. This presentation describes this motivation behind this development, tool performance and weld properties when welding Ti6Al4V plates. |