Hussein Mesmari and Fawzia Kra
Abstract
In friction welding, the joints are formed in the solid state by utilizing the heat generated by friction, followed by compressive forging force. The continuous drive friction welding method (CDFW) appears to be an alternative to make use of stainless steel more widespread. This method is adopted in the present work, and Taguchi array L27 (33) orthogonal array is designed for conducting the experiments and from ANOM analysis and S/N ratio, the best set-up of operating parameters to produce AISI 304/304 stainless steel joints, these parameters was found as: P1=73.8 bar, P2=85 bar, and t1=1 sec, where t1 is the most influential factors on weld strength. The coupling effect of these parameters has a major effect on produced joint quality. The joined strength is with maximum efficiency of 105% that indicates, the austenitic stainless steel is highly tolerant to friction welding. Dynamic recrystallization is the major mechanism for the microstructural evolution at the joint centreline, which characterized by refined, equiaxed, and homogeneous microstructure.