Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

The dissimilar friction stir lap welding of 1A99 Al to pure Cu using Zn

as filler metal with ‘‘pinless’’ tool configuration
Binbin Kuang, Yifu Shen ⇑, Wenhua Chen, Xin Yao, Haisheng Xu, Jicheng Gao, Jingqing Zhang
College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), Yudao Street 29, 210016 Nanjing, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Friction stir welding (FSW) with pinless tool provides many advantages over traditional FSW, the most
Received 17 September 2014 significant of which are avoiding the wear of the tool and no retained keyholes of fabrication. This
Accepted 4 December 2014 research is focused on understanding the interlayer of the dissimilar FSW of 2 mm copper plate and
Available online 18 December 2014
2 mm aluminum plate using 0.2 mm zinc foil as filler metal with pinless tool. The macro and microstruc-
ture, heat history of the interlayer under different parameters and the weld properties have been inves-
Keywords: tigated. The experimental observations showed that the thickness of the interlayer decreased with the
Friction stir welding
increasing of rotating speed and the decreasing of traverse speed, but the rotating speed played a more
Macro and microstructure
Thermal history
important role in the process, which could also be proved by the thermo histories tested and recorded by
Interlayer evolution embedding K-type thermocouples. The investigation of typical interlayer has also been carried out in
Mechanical properties order to study the evolution behavior of the interlayer. The mechanical properties have shown consider-
able relations with the interlayer, including the microstructure and the extent of diffusion and extrusion.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction generation, and electronics industries [9]. However, joining of dis-

There is a clear trend in manufacturing toward the greater use
of Al/Cu welding to achieve increasingly demanding Cu used effi-
ciency which is much more expensive than Al. Friction stir welding
(FSW) is a solid-state thermo-mechanical joining process, where
the actual mechanism of weld formation is accurately described
as a combination of extrusion and forging, which has a potential
applications in the automotive industries [1]. Over the last decade,
FSW has offered a great welding quality to the joint of aluminum,
magnesium, titanium, copper, and steel [2]. Besides, some
researchers have investigated the FSW process and obtained some
significant results via numerical simulation [3,4], which is pro-
foundly instructive and meaningful to the experimental studies.
To meet the requirements from the electronic and power genera-
tion industries, a few studies [5–8] have also been reported for
the FSW of aluminum to copper. Due to the different chemical,
mechanical, and thermal properties of materials, a dissimilar mate-
rial joining presents more difficulties than similar materials
joining.
Development of sound joints between dissimilar materials is a
very important consideration for many emerging applications
including the chemical, nuclear, aerospace, transportation, power
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 025 84895940; fax: +86 2552112626.
E-mail addresses: yifushen_nuaa@hotmail.com, yifushen@nuaa.edu.cn (Y. Shen).
similar materials by conventional fusion welding is difficult
because of poor weldability arising from different chemical,
mechanical, thermal properties of welded materials and formation
of hard and brittle intermetallics in large scale at weld interface. As
FSW operates in the solid state, it was naturally extended to joint
dissimilar reactive materials, with the aim of reducing the amount
of intermetallics, because too thick layers of intermetallic are
indeed deleterious for the mechanical behavior of the joints [5,6].
Although it was reported that the formation of a thin intermetallic
layer along the Al/brass interface may increase the mechanical
properties of the dissimilar welds, it is different to control the layer
thickness and an increase in the layer thickness will result in the
crack formation and the mechanical properties decrease signifi-
cantly [10,11]. However both Al and Cu can produce the formation
of alloys with Zn according to the phase diagrams. Zn could act as
filler which contribute to the intimate contact or effectual mutual
diffusion between the base metals.
The need for a pin in FSW results in an aesthetically undesirable
keyhole and groove (channel) which is caused by the insufficient
material flow. And the keyhole and groove (channel) significantly
influence the weld strength [12]. The keyhole also leaves concerns
for corrosion performance in service. Meanwhile, the end of the pin
will be damaged easily, because the pin tip must penetrate into the
Cu matrix by 25 pct of its thickness [13] to avoid rapid failure
along the initial faying interface. Although the tool pin can omitted

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2014.12.008
0261-3069/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62
to prevent wear in FSW, the mechanical mixing between the top
and bottom materials becomes different, it is difficult to obtain a
full metallurgical bond, usually leading to low failure energies by
cleavage along the weld line [14]. The failure behavior is thus a
complex function of the tool design and welding parameters. Fur-
thermore, intermetallic also tends to form easily at the bond inter-
face because of direct intermixing between Al and Cu with intense
plastic deformation.
To produce high-strength welds, a pinless tool was designed
[15–22]. Tozaki et al. [14] have shown that a pinless tool design
can produce high-strength welds in 2-mm sheet in thickness. The
pinless tool and filler metal must be used to avoid the severe wear
of pin by hard parent metal and to induce metallurgical reaction
instead of mechanically severe mixing between jointing interfaces,
respectively. Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the pinless
FSW with Zn filler metal between Al and Cu plates. The possibility
of producing high quality welds with a pinless tool is counterintu-
itive but has many advantages, including a simpler process and a
better aesthetic appearance with a shallow or no retained keyhole.
Under a classic pin tool, the material softened by frictional heat is
pushed down to near the bottom surface and then moves upward
outside the material that flows downward. The Zn filler will be
damaged by the intense stir and material flow which will lead to
the direct contact between the upper Al plate and the bottom Cu
plate. While the material flow under the pinless tool is relatively
stable and homogeneous. The frictional heat and appropriate
material flow will accelerate the diffusion to form sound joints.
The main aim of this paper was thus to investigate different
welding parameters on the interlayers and mechanical properties
of FSW joints produced Al and Cu plates, using a pinless tool and
Zn filler. This was achieved by studying the joint’s performance
and evolution behavior, using lap shear tests and careful hardness
measurements, supported by electron microscopy of the weld zone
diffusion behavior.
2. Experimental procedure
In this study, a pinless tool in H13 tool steel with shoulder
diameters equal to 16 mm was designed and used, as schematized
in Fig. 1. A steel holder with several fixed bolts was used to hold
the FSW tool. The rolled plates of 1A99 aluminum alloy (2 mm
thickness, 100 mm width, and 100 mm length) and industrial pure
Cu plates (2 mm thickness) were used as the top and bottom plates
of the lap joints with a zinc sheet (0.2 mm thickness, 100 mm
width, and 100 mm length) between them. Prior to the welding,
Fig. 1. Scheme of the pinless friction stir welding setup.
55
the plates and sheet were cleaned with acetone to remove the
impurities such as dirt and oil. For comparison, the pinless FSW
with Zn filler was classified into two groups based on the parame-
ters with traverse speed (m) of 20, 40 mm/min under different rota-
tion speed (n) of 1200, 1600 and 2000 rpm, respectively. And the
same plunge depth of 0.2 mm, welding tool title angle of 1° was
used. The welding parameters are summarized in Table 1.
Rotating tool was plunged into the aluminum alloy surface and
the welding direction was parallel to the rolling direction of the
aluminum plate. Transverse sections of the as-produced FSW sam-
ples were mounted and then mechanically polished with carbide
abrasive papers.
During welding, the temperatures at the interface of the weld
was recorded by embedding K-type thermocouples vertically in
the Cu plate underneath the tool center, as indicated in Fig. 2.
And the recording started with the welding. The thermocouple tips
were mounted 0.1 mm proud of the plate ensuring good contact
aided by the welding force.
After welding, optical microscopy was carried out on the joints
obtained with using the different welding conditions to study
microstructure of the welds and to observe the shape and structure
of the interface. Scanning electron microscope (SEM: Hitachi
S-4800 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope) was used
to observe the more delicate microstructure, an energy dispersive
X-ray spectroscopy (EDS: Bruker Quantax-400) was used to
examine chemical compositions.
The mechanical properties of FSW samples were measured at
ambient temperature by Vickers microhardness and tensile testing.
The microhardness indentation was performed along the interface
using an HXS-1000 microhardness tester with a load of 0.05 kg and
dwell time of 15 s. Shear test specimens of 16 mm width were cut
from the FSW plates approximately at the middle of the plate; a
gauge length of 60 mm was used to ensure that gauge section is
entirely made from the welding zone. Three shear test specimens
were made and tested at a rate of 1 mm/min using an Instron-
5581 electromechanical testing machine at room temperature.
The average shear strength was computed then.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Macro and microstructure analysis
After welding, the effect of different welding parameters on the
macro and microstructure of the joint interlayer were investigated.
Fig. 3 depicts the holistic appearance of as-friction stir welded Al/
Zn/Cu transverse sections produced with different parameters:
group A and group B, respectively. Generally, the stir zone (SZ) area
increases and the thickness of interlayer between the upper Al
plate and the bottom Cu plate decreases with the increasing of
rotation speed and the decreasing of traverse speed. The interlay-
ers are marked in Fig. 3. The weld sections show the area of the stir
zones; the etching is sensitive to change in the precipitation behav-
ior within the weld zones. Higher magnified SEM images of the
interlayer are shown at the weld center in Fig. 4. Although only
one traverse speed is used in Group A, the interlayer microstruc-
tures are quite different due to the different traverse speed. When
n is 1200 rpm, the thickness of the interlayer is about 200 lm,
Table 1
List of the welding parameters.
Group A Group B
Rotation speed (rpm) 1200, 1600, 2000 1200, 1600, 2000
Traverse speed (mm/min) 40 20
Plunging depth (mm) 0.2 0.2
56 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the thermocouples position.

which is almost the same as the original Zn sheet, which demon-

strates that the Zn filler does not be extruded or forged during
the FSW process. However, when n is 1600 rpm, the thickness of
the interlayer decreases to about 9 lm. And an apparent crack is
found in Fig. 4a at the interface between Cu plate and the inter-
layer, and the crack disappears with the increasing of rotation
speed and the decreasing of traverse speed. It is interesting that
the thickness of the interlayer decreasing is also observed in Group
B with the increasing of the rotation speed, i.e. from about 155 lm
at 1200 rpm to about 8 lm at 2000 rpm. In addition, from the com-
parison of the Group A and Group B as shown in Fig. 4, it can be
concluded that the thickness of the interlayer is mainly attributed
to the rotation speed of the tool. As when the traverse speed
increases, the thickness of the interlayer does not show distinct
difference except when n is 1200 rpm, the thickness of the inter-
Fig. 3. Cross-sections macrostructure of pinless FSWs with Zn metal filler, produced
layer decreases from 200 lm to 155 lm. Besides, the interlayer with different parameters of Group A: (a), (b) and (c); Group B: (e), (d) and (f). The
presents different features as seen in Fig. 4a, d and e, and those upper plate and bottom plate are Al and Cu, respectively.
interlayers are relatively more homogeneous.
Based on the above microstructure characterization, the micro-
structure of the interlayer is relatively complicated. To better
explain the differences of the joint, magnified SEM images and line verse speed. As compared to the results from Group A, an Al–Zn–Cu
EDS results of Fig. 4b–d, and e interfaces at center parts are com- ternary alloy tends to be formed. And Zn-rich particles are also
pared, as presented in Figs. 5 and 6. The thickness of interlayers observed at the interlayer in Fig. 6d, about 3 lm in size, which
is marked in Fig. 6. are smaller than particles found in Fig. 5a. In addition, two homog-
Figs. 5a and 6a give the microstructure morphology and the line enous layers with significant contrast are seen in Fig. 5c at the weld
EDS results, respectively. Zn-rich particles which are about 9 lm in center area. It illustrates that the extent of diffusion and extrusion
size are found in the interlayer where the Zn composition content is greater under lower traverse speed at the interface.
could reach 40 at.%. The highest Zn composition content is found in All the results above reveal that a contributory factor to the fea-
the particle center. The Zn-rich particles are caused by lack of dif- ture of the interlayer would be expected from the heat generation
fusion because of short existence time of peak temperature. And and extrusion during the welding process [17]. More heat gener-
the diffusion of Cu is not so pronounced in most area of the inter- ated and more extrusion could therefore contribute to greater dif-
layer in Fig. 5a which has a contrast comparison with Fig. 5b. The fusion. However, over higher rotation speed with more heat input
more homogeneous interlayer observed in Fig. 5b with higher Zn and high tool pressure could cause over mechanical extrusion, as
and Cu composition content, seen in Fig. 6b, tends to form Zn–Cu seen in Figs. 3c and 5b, thus more Zn metal was extruded into
alloy in the interlayer. While the concentration profiles of elements the Al matrix. As a result, the joint strength may decrease. Further-
of the interface in Fig. 6c and d which are at weld center show more, over higher rotation speed with lower traverse speed, thus
more distinct difference, though the thickness of the interlayer the Zn metal was extruded away at the welding center caused
does not show many disparities. The Zn composition content as the direct contact of Al plate and Cu plate. Therefore, brittle Al–
presented in Fig. 6d is lower than that in Fig. 6c in general resulted Cu intermetallic compounds with a little Zn might be formed
from higher heat input and greater extrusion because of lower tra- which have an adverse effect on the joint strength.
 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62
Fig. 4. SEM images showing the microstructure of the joint produced under different parameters of Group A (a–c) and Group B (e–f).
3.2. Thermal histories
When welding without pin, a contributory factor to joint perfor-
mance would be expected from any loss of heat during the weld
process. Fig. 7 gives the real-time temperature changing curves
of Group A and Group B tested and recorded by K-type thermocou-
ple measurements positioned at the bottom of Zn sheet at the weld
center. The peak temperatures during FSW on Al plate are all
higher than the melting point of Zn, which is the dash line indi-
cated in Fig. 6, using the rotating speed of 1600 rpm and
2000 rpm. Furthermore, the time of temperature exceeding the
melting point of Zn is much longer under 2000 rpm than that
under 1600 rpm. It demonstrates that the Zn filler at weld center
melts under relatively higher rotation speed. In addition, the time
when the temperature is above the melting point of Zn becomes
longer with the decreasing of the traverse speed. For Al alloys,
the average maximum temperature of FSW generally conforms to
a certain relationship with the process parameters. It can be
explained by [10]:
 a
T n2
¼K
Tm m  10 4
where the exponent a and the constant K is material parameters, n
and v are the rotation and traverse speeds during FSW, and Tm (°C)
is the melting point of the alloy. The maximum temperature (T) has
the positive correlations with the pseudo-heat index of n2/v [23]. It
also suggested that the influence of rotating-speed increment on
the peak processing temperature was greater than traverse-speed
decrease as discussed above.
57
3.3. Interlayer evolution
To understand the interface evolution behavior during this pro-
cess (such as extrusion and movement of liquid metal, the forma-
tion of the interlayer), the typical structure of interlayer produced
at rotation speed of 1600 rpm in Group B is examined in detail.
The interlayer in the weld center side is much thinner than that
at the retreating side (RS) and advancing side (AS), which is prob-
ably caused by the extrusion of the tool and the diffusion rate
which closely relates to heat input. Both Fig. 8 and Fig. 4e show
the typical areas of the interface. Base on the distribution of Zn fil-
ler and the interface evolution in distinct stages, the interface could
be divided into three parts from the RS to the weld center, as sche-
matically shown in Fig. 9.
Part I (interface formed by extrusion, Fig. 8a): In front of the tool
shoulder, an additional layer can be seen above the solid Zn.
According to the point EDS result, it should be extruded molten
alloy in which the main elements were Al and Zn.
Part II (transition part, Fig. 8b): The thickness of the middle
layer becomes thinner gradually toward the center of the weld
center, and the molten alloy is extruded into Al substrate along
ð1Þ
the edge of the SZ. Meanwhile, the interdiffusion between Zn and
Al occurs. According to the principle of the transient liquid phase
bonding, since Zn is a melting point depressant for Al, the molten
Zn diffuses into Al will result in a decrease in melting and softening
temperature of the Al substrate. Therefore, the bottom of the SZ is
widened as indicated in Fig. 8b, which is different from traditional
SZ [22].
Part III (stable interface, Figs. 4e and 5c): The evolution behavior
of the interlayer is shown in this region. From the line EDS result
58 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62

Fig. 5. Microstructure examinations of middle-layers produced under different parameters. (a)–(d) SEM images of the localized regions marked in Fig. 4b, c, e and f,
respectively.

analysis result, the Cu is covered by Zn–Cu alloy as a result of that
the interdiffusion between Cu and Zn could increase with the aid of
Zn in liquid state to form the interlayer. Meanwhile, the liquid Zn
coupled with intense stirring provides continuous diffusion gradi-
ent between the Zn and the Cu. However, the diffusion will be
restrained by the over-low heating temperature and the over-short
heating time. And it can be seen that Cu dissolute or diffuse into
molten Zn–Al alloy slightly. Actually, with the forward motion of
the tool, videlicet, with the enhancement of heating stirring and
forging, the formation of the interlayer seems to be exacerbated
by FSW, as the material flow brings about mechanical mixing, short
circuit diffusions and a high supersaturation of vacancies [24,25].
Overall, the formation of the interlayer should be a diffusion pro-
cess, rather than the in-situ solidification process of alloyed melt.
3.4. Mechanical properties
When welding the dissimilar metal using filler metal, a factor
would be expected that the microhardness of the joint is influ-
enced by the interlayer of the Al/Zn/Cu, which is effected by heat-
ing and stirring during welding. To access the significance of such
an effect, hardness was measured on both the upper Al plate and
the lower Cu plate along the interlayer on the cross-section, and
the two measured lines were 200 lm near the central interlayer,
respectively.
Fig. 10a and b shows the hardness distribution profile of the
welds under Group A and Group B conditions, respectively.
The hardness in lower Cu plate is generally higher than that of
the base metal when the rotation speeds are 1600 rpm and
 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62
Fig. 6. The main element profiles by EDS line scan detections in Fig. 5a–d, respectively.
Fig. 7. Temperature histories.
2000 rpm. And the highest hardness value is found located at the
center part of the welds, since the rotating pinless tool only
plunged into the upper Al plate, the lower Cu plate only undergoes
59
a high pressure under high temperature. The increase of the hard-
ness is mainly caused by the alloying of Cu and Zn in Cu matrix,
which is attributed to the interdiffusion of Cu and Zn. In addition,
the region of the hardness values which are above the hardness
value of base metal in the Cu plate increases with the increasing
of the rotation speed. The results are found both in Group A and
Group B, but the hardness shows no difference with the rotation
speed of 1200 rpm.
This can be explained that when n is 1200 rpm, the heat input is
lower compared with welding parameter at the 1600 rpm and
2000 rpm. In the hardness profile measured of Al plate, it is
observed that there is insignificant decrease of hardness in the SZ
when the rotation speed is 1200 rpm. Indeed, the area where the
hardness measured is actually the heat affected zone (HAZ), and
the HAZ softening [15] occurs there. A more important factor is
observed that there is a significant hardness increase at the edge
of the SZ because of the extruded Zn based alloy. And the highest
hardness shows large difference because of the variably complex-
ity of the contents.
In order to compare the weld properties under different param-
eters, tensile samples of lap joint properties were evaluated by
extracting specimens from the different welded plate. The sample
had a 16 mm  16 mm gage area. Fig. 11 shows shear strength
under different parameters. The failure load increases with the
60 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62

Fig. 8. SEM images showing different part of the middle-layer produced at the typical parameters (1600 rpm and 20 mm/min), the inset shows EDS results of marked position
in Fig. 8a: (a) in front of the tool shoulder, (b) at the bottom of the SZ.

Fig. 9. Model of the formation of the pinless friction stir welded joint with Zn metal
filler.

increasing of the rotating speed in Group A, while the failure

increases and then decreases with the increasing of the rotating
speed in Group B. The highest shear strength (7.38 KN) is found
in Group B with the rotation of 1600 rpm, which implies that the
FSW with pinless tool process is effective on welding dissimilar
Cu and Al metal with the Zn metal filler. In the as-welded condi-
tion, the fracture mode is shear fracture, and the shear fracture
occurs at the Cu–Zn side and propagated along the interface
between Zn sheet and bottom Cu plate until the failure occurs.
The chief reason could be that the only diffusional deformation
of Cu–Zn side is relatively weak compared with the diffusional
and mechanical deformation of Al–Zn interface. And the welding
temperature at the Cu–Zn side is relatively lower. As a result, the
alloys with different strengths form under the FSW process. The
fracture surfaces of the highest shear strength were examined in
detail. Fig. 12(a) shows the fracture morphology after shear test
at Al side and Cu side. The joint surface between the two plates
has been completely sheared off. The fracture surface at the lower
Cu plate was investigated by SEM and the result is shown in
Fig. 12(b). A number of bulgy ridges are clearly observed at the
welding center along the tensile direction, which indicates that Fig. 10. Microhardness profiles measured 0.2 mm near the middle-layers. (a) and
the fracture might happen and extend along the direction. (b) the microhardness profiles of Group A and Group B, respectively.
 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62 61

4. Conclusions

It has been demonstrated that pinless dissimilar FSW of 1A99 Al

plate to pure Cu plate, which are both 2 mm in thickness, using
0.2 mm-thick Zn foil as filler metal is an advanced process. Based
on the aforementioned experimental results, the following conclu-
sions could be drawn:

Fig. 11. Tensile test results of the average tensile strength.
Actually, in FSW, the intense plastic flow breaks up stretches
the weld interface to expose a new clean interface. Because of
the more limited flow at the weld interface, often only partial
bonding is achieved in FSW with the pinless tool, and the interface
tends to be relatively weak and acts as a fracture during failure.
Nevertheless, the results presented previously with the pinless tool
show that, under the right conditions, ‘‘good enough’’ bond
strength can be obtained in the experiment.
(1) The interlayer of the weld has been studied successfully. The
thickness of interlayer decreases with the increase of heat
input, namely, the increase of the rotating speed and the
decrease of the traverse speed. With the increasing of rotat-
ing speed from 1200 rpm to 2000 rpm both in Group A and
Group B, the thickness of interlayer at the center of the weld
decreases from 200 lm to 9 lm, and from 155 lm to 8 lm,
respectively. The rotating speed plays a more important role
in the thickness of the interlayer. And the EDS results
showed the tendency of the diffusion.
(2) The peak temperature and the existence time of the peak
temperature at the weld center part increases with the
increasing of the rotating speed and the decreasing of the
traverse speed, which is consistence with the thickness of
the interlayer.
(3) In terms of the microstructure examination on the interlayer
of a typical structure with rotating speed of 1600 rpm and
traverse speed of 20 mm/min, the interlayer evolution can
be characterized by the feature of the interlayer, which can
be divided into three parts from the RS to the weld center.
With the aid of Zn foil and mechanical actions of shoulder,
subsequently, great interdiffusion of Al and molten Zn, and

Al side Cu side

Fig. 12. Fracture surface features of the shear sample: (a) photo of the joint, (b) enlarged view of the marked region in Fig. 12(a).
62 B. Kuang et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 54–62
extrusion of Zn–Al liquid phase with little Cu occurs. The
excessive liquid phase is primarily extruded toward RS and
the edge of the SZ.
(4) The increase of the microhardness occurs in Cu side due to the
interdiffusion while Al side due to the interdiffusion and the
extrusion. Successful weld can be produced with a rotating
speed of 1600 rpm and traverse speed of 20 mm/min, which
exhibits the highest joint strengths, and no weld keyhole.
Acknowledgement
The work of this paper was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51475232).
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