With the increasing growth of engineering plastics, the demand for reliable, rapid, high productivity and cost effective joining methods (similar to those used in the case of metals) is an undeniable requirement [. Furthermore, the need to produce larger and more complex parts from polymers has created an increased demand for joining, particularly in thermoplastic materials. In the case of creating a joint with high efficiency (the ratio of joint strength to base material strength) between currently available joining methods, welding is the best option [2,3]. Plastic welding processes can be divided into two groups: (1) Processes involving mechanical movement to produce heating (ultrasonic welding, friction welding, vibration welding) (2) processes involving external heating (hot plate welding, hot gas welding and resistive and implant welding) [. The welding method presented in this study utilizes both mechanical movement and external heating to produce heat.

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Friction stir processing (FSP) was used to fabricate Al/Cu metal matrix composite (MMC). The effects of two different tool pin profiles (straight cylindrical and square) and the number of FSP passes on microstructure, tensile properties and microhardness were studied. The results indicated that good dispersion of micro-sized Cu particles, finer grains, higher tensile properties and higher microhardness, can be achieved by the square tool pin profile compared to the samples produced by the other tool. Also it was observed that the ultimate tensile strength of the samples produced by two FSP passes, as a result of Cu particles shattering, increased intensively compared to the samples fabricated with first FSP pass. Further FSP passes increased the elongation of the composites without any considerable changes in yield and ultimate tensile strength.