Friction stir spot welds were made in uncoated and galvannealed DP780 sheets using polycrystalline boron nitride stir tools. The tools were plunged at either a single continuous rate or in two segments consisting of a relatively high rate followed by a slower rate of shorter depth. Welding times ranged from 1 to 10 s. Increasing tool rotation speed from 800 to 1600 rev min 21 increased strength values. The 2-segment welding procedures also produced higher strength joints. Average lap shear strengths exceeding 10?3 kN were consistently obtained in 4 s on both the uncoated and the galvannealed DP780. The likelihood of diffusion and mechanical interlocking contributing to bond formation was supported by metallographic examinations. A cost analysis based on spot welding in automobile assembly showed that for friction stir spot welding to be economically competitive with resistance spot welding the cost of stir tools must approach that of resistance spot welding electrode tips.

Friction stir back extrusion (FSBE) is a technique for lightweight metal extrusion. The frictional heat and severe plastic deformation of the process generate an equiaxed refined grain structure because of dynamic recrystallization. Previous studies proved that the fabrication of tube and wire structures is feasible. In this work, hollow cylindrical billets of 6063-T6 aluminum alloy were used as starting material. A relatively low extrusion ratio allows for a temperature and deformation gradient through the tube wall thickness to elucidate the effect of heat and temperature on the microstructure evolution during FSBE. The force and temperature were recorded during the processes. The microstructures of the extruded tubes were characterized using an optical microscope, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and hardness testing. The process reduced the grain size from 58.2 lm to 20.6 lm at the inner wall. The microhardness of the alloy was reduced from 100 to 60-75 HV because of the process thermal cycle. tract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/do e-public-access-plan).

These experiments were done to evaluate the feasibility of locally modifying the surface properties of magnesium alloys with friction-stir processing. The magnesium alloy used for the study was highpressure die-cast AM60B, nominally . Friction-stir passes were made with a translation speed of 1.7 mm/s using tool-rotation speeds of 1,250 rpm or 2,500 rpm. Stir passes with good appearance were obtained under both conditions. In some cases up to fi ve passes were overlapped on a single bar to produce stir zones with cross-sectional dimensions of about 1.5 mm x 10 mm. Metallographic examinations indicated that the stir zones were largely comprised of a magnesium solid solution with equiaxed grains on the order of 5-10 μm in size. Hardness mapping showed that the stir zones experienced increases of 16-25% compared to the as-cast metal. Room-temperature testing showed that, compared to the cast metal, the stir zones had fl ow stresses nearly 20% higher with about twice the tensile elongation.

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