Abstract:An attempt has been made to study the tailor welded blanks (TWBs) made by friction stir welding (FSW) with five different tool pin profiles. The formability of welded blanks was evaluated at constant FSW process parameters. It has been found that the welded blanks with square pin profile tool produced better formability properties as compared to other tool pin profiles. It was found that the pulsating action of the square pin profile is said to be the reason for this improvement. A microstructural evaluation performed on the blanks revealed that the stir zone created by taper cylindrical and stepped cylindrical tools was less homogeneous than that of the square tool, resulting in less formability. The limiting dome height (LDH) of square pin profile tool was found to be 14 mm while those of taper cylindrical and stepped cylindrical tools are 12.5 mm and 12.4 mm, respectively.

Key words: aluminium alloys; tool pin profile; tensile testing; formability; microstructure