Friction Stir Processing Of TIG And Friction Stir Welded Dissimilar Alloy Joints: A Review

The use of aluminium alloys continues to grow in many applications to mention a few aerospace, automotive, electronics, electricity, construction and food packaging. With so much demand there is a new interest in welding of dissimilar aluminium alloys. Some of the welding techniques used to join dissimilar aluminium alloys include friction stir welding and TIG welding. The welding of dissimilar alloys affects the mechanical properties negatively due to porosity and cracking during the welding. This then suggests that there should be a process which can be used to improve the dissimilar alloys mechanical properties post its production. Friction stir processing was found to be one of the mechanical techniques that could be used to improve the mechanical properties of the material. This paper reports on the literature on the friction stir welding, TIG welding and friction stir processing techniques published so far, with the aim to identify the gap in the use of friction stir process as a post processing technique of the weld joints.