Study on Impact of Microstructure and Hardness of Aluminium Alloy After Friction Stir Welding

The effects of friction stir welding (FSW) on the microstructure and hardness of rolled pure aluminium 6061 were investigated. The weld was obtained by varying its tilt angle (2°) and Pin diameter (6mm). Tensile strength & % Elongation was carried out to evaluate the strength of the weld. Optical microscope study was carried out to study the uniform stirring of materials. The stir zone (SZ) contains fine, equiaxed and fully recrystallized grains. Thermo mechanically- affected zone (TMAZ), heat-affected zone (HAZ), and base material (BM) were different. Hardness test indicated that the minimum and maximum hardness values were obtained in the HAZ and BM, respectively.