In recent years, interest has been increasing in application of Nickel alloys in the oil industry. For subsea engineering, the possibility to weld high-strength materials in an effective manner is essential. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is alternative to join several materials retaining their properties or even improving them. This fact is relevant for Corrosion-Resistant Alloys (CRA) used in deep-water exploitation of hydrocarbons. Publications up to now have focused on FSW of Inconel R series as alloy 600, 625, and 718. To provide a solid basis for development, this review discusses the crucial points for FSW. The tool materials are described, as well as the joint microstructure and properties achieved. Furthermore, the basics of the corrosion resistance and the early corrosion studies of FSW joints are presented. It is concluded that FSW is a promising process for Ni alloys, but depends on upcoming research regarding tool technology and corrosion investigations.

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The purpose of the present study was to fulfil the knowledge gap concerning residual stresses evaluation of friction stir welded GL E36 shipbuilding steel. Plates of 6 mm thickness were welded using two different welding speeds (1 and 3 mm s−1) at a constant rotational speed of 500 rev min−1. This led to different thermal cycles and the objective is to analyse the resulting microstructures and residual stress states. Therefore, in this work, residual stresses were evaluated by X-ray diffraction; metallography and microhardness testing were performed to support these measurements. Results showed that welds produced with different heat inputs have distinguishable residual stress distributions. Increases in the welding speed led to higher residual stress and microhardness in the stir zone.

The new challenges of the oil and gas industry require noble materials with chemical stability and greater mechanical properties. Alloy 625, popularly known as Inconel® 625, is used as a cladding material for pipelines and other components. Therefore, the study of joining methods that produce excellent welded joints is essential. Thus, in this study, welded sheets of Inconel 625 were produced by Friction Stir Welding (FSW) and afterwards they were subjected to a heat treatment to evaluate the susceptibility to sensitization by the Double Loop Electrochemical Potentiokinetic Reactivation(DL-EPR)technique. In addition, microhardness profiles were performed before and after the isothermal treatment. The microhardness results indicated that the increased hardness is due to the carbides formation after heat treatment. On the other hand, electrochemical tests showed that FSW process can significantly affect the degree of sensitization.

In this work, orbital friction stir welding (Orbital FSW) has been now developed in clad pipes, which is certainly of interest to the oil and gas industry. In this context, a system capable of performing sound joints in one pass with full tool penetration was developed. Therefore, orbital FSW was executed in clad pipes of 6 mm thick API X65 PSL2 steel and a 3 mm thick Inconel 625 with a polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (pcBN) tool. Furthermore, the metallurgical properties of the welded joints were investigated and discussed. Sound joints with axial forces of 45–50 kN, rotational speed of 400–500 rpm and welding speed of 2 mm/s were obtained, proving that the developed system can perform joints by orbital FSW without volumetric defects.

Orbital friction stir welding (FSW) has been applied to clad pipes, which is certainly of interest to the oil and gas industry. In this context, an FSW system capable of performing sound joints in one pass with full tool penetration was developed. Orbital FSW was executed in 6 mm thick API X65 PSL2 steel clad pipes with 3 mm thick Inconel 625 using a polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (pcBN) tool. The metallurgical and mechanical properties of the joints were investigated. Sound joints with axial forces of 45–50 kN, tool rotational speeds of 400–500 rpm, and a welding speed of 2 mm/s were obtained, illustrating that the developed system can perform FSW joints without volumetric defects.

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