The Effect of Temper Condition and Feeding Speed on the Additive Manufacturing of AA2011 Parts Using Friction Stir Deposition

Abstract

In the current study, solid-state additive manufacturing (SSAM) of two temper conditions AA2011 was successfully conducted using the friction stir deposition (FSD) process. The AA2011-T6 and AA2011-O consumable bars of 20 mm diameter were used as a feeding material against AA5083 substrate. The effect of the rotation rate and feeding speed of the consumable bars on the macrostructure, microstructure, and hardness of the friction stir deposited (FSD) materials were examined. The AA2011-T6 bars were deposited at a constant rotation rate of 1200 rpm and different feeding speeds of 3, 6, and 9 mm/min, whereas the AA2011-O bars were deposited at a constant rotation rate of 200 mm/min and varied feeding speeds of 1, 2, and 3 mm/min. The obtained microstructure was investigated using an optical microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with EDS analysis to evaluate microstructural features. Hardness was also assessed as average values and maps. The results showed that this new technique succeeded in producing sound additive manufactured parts at all the applied processing parameters. The microstructures of the additive manufactured parts showed equiaxed refined grains compared to the coarse grain of the starting materials. The detected intermetallics in AA2011 alloy are mainly Al2Cu and Al7Cu2Fe. The improvement in hardness of AA2011-O AMPs reached 163% of the starting material hardness at the applied feeding speed of 1 mm/min. The hardness mapping analysis reveals a homogeneous hardness profile along the building direction. Finally, it can be said that the temper conditions of the starting AA2011 materials govern the selection of the processing parameters in terms of rotation rate and feeding speed and affects the properties of the produced additive manufactured parts in terms of hardness and microstructural features.

A Novel Friction Stir Deposition Technique to Refill Keyhole of Friction Stir Spot Welded AA6082-T6 Dissimilar Joints of Different Sheet Thicknesses

“…This reduction in thickness as a result of high accumulated plastic deformation promotes high internal strain, which increases the strength [ 48 ]. As reported in [ 28 , 29 ], the microstructure of the AA2011-T6 rod alloy shows coarse grains and the intermetallics of Al 7 Cu 2 Fe (rodlike shape) and Al 2 Cu (almost spherical or irregular shapes), as shown in Figure 11 c.…”

“…During the deposition process, the material of the rotating consumable rod is subjected to severe plastic deformation at high homologous temperatures. As a result, the material deposited by the friction stirring process undergoes dynamic recrystallization and develops a very fine grain size [ 28 , 29 ]. El-Sayed Seleman et al [ 28 ] studied utilizing the FSD process to manufacture continuous multilayer high-performance, metal-based AA2011/nano Al 2 O 3 composites using AA2011 in two temper conditions of AA2011-T6 and AA2011-O as a matrix.…”

“…Recently, friction stir deposition (FSD) as an additive manufacturing technology is recommended by many authors to build multilayers of different materials on various substrates [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. This technology is a suitable technique to produce metallic parts for the automobile and aircraft industries.…”

“…This technology is a suitable technique to produce metallic parts for the automobile and aircraft industries. It is also a thermomechanical process based on the FSW principles, by adding a mechanism of material feeding to deposit alloys [ 29 , 30 , 31 ] and composites [ 28 ]. Perry et al [ 32 ] concluded that the FSD path of AA2024 Al alloy at a 300 rpm tool rotational speed, 2 mm/s travel speed, and 0.85 mm/s feed rate reveals an almost fully recrystallized microstructure.…”

Special Issue: Advance in Friction Stir Processed Materials

“…In paper [ 12 ], a friction stir deposition technique (FSD) in the additive manufacturing of AA2011 parts was used. FSD is a solid-state additive manufacturing technique that can be used to deposit different materials.…”