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Friction stir welding (FSW) is a widely used solid state joining process for soft materials such as aluminium alloys because it avoids many of the common problems of fusion welding. Commercial feasibility of the FSW process for harder alloys such as steels and titanium alloys awaits the development of cost effective and durable tools which lead to structurally sound welds consistently. Material selection and design profoundly affect the performance of tools, weld quality and cost. Here we review and critically examine several important aspects of FSW tools such as tool material selection, geometry and load bearing ability, mechanisms of tool degradation and process economics.

Although additive manufacturing (AM), or three dimensional (3D) printing, provides significant advantages over existing manufacturing techniques, metallic parts produced by AM are susceptible to distortion, lack of fusion defects and compositional changes. Here we show that the printability, or the ability of an alloy to avoid these defects, can be examined by developing and testing appropriate theories. A theoretical scaling analysis is used to test vulnerability of various alloys to thermal distortion. A theoretical kinetic model is used to examine predisposition of different alloys to AM induced compositional changes. A well-tested numerical heat transfer and fluid flow model is used to compare susceptibilities of various alloys to lack of fusion defects. These results are tested and validated with independent experimental data. The findings presented in this paper are aimed at achieving distortion free, compositionally sound and well bonded metallic parts.

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A three-dimensional, transient, heat transfer, and fluid flow model is developed for the laser assisted multilayer additive manufacturing process with coaxially fed austenitic stainless steel powder. Heat transfer between the laser beam and the powder particles is considered both during their flight between the nozzle and the growth surface and after they deposit on the surface. The geometry of the build layer obtained from independent experiments is compared with that obtained from the model. The spatial variation of melt geometry, cooling rate, and peak temperatures is examined in various layers. The computed cooling rates and solidification parameters are used to estimate the cell spacings and hardness in various layers of the structure. Good agreement is achieved between the computed geometry, cell spacings, and hardness with the corresponding independent experimental results. V

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