Recent Developments in Friction Stir Welding

Since TWI invented FSW in 1991 it has grown in size, with over 250 licensees of the process worldwide in the aerospace, rail, shipbuilding, automotive, construction and electronics industries. This presentation will cover some of the more recent developments at TWI including stationary shoulder FSW, which was invented to look at FSW of low conductivity materials like titanium alloys, but is showing great promise with aluminium alloys. The development of the stationary shoulder technique has allowed the welding of dissimilar aluminium alloy fillet weld sections and other geometries with the addition of local wire.

Advanced monitoring for real time QA of the process and in-line NDT of FSW using laser generated ultrasonic testing of the welds will also be discussed. Finally progress on the development of tool materials for FSW of low conductivity (titanium alloys) and high temperature materials (titanium and steel) will also be covered in this talk with some mechanical property data discussed.