Influence of tool traverse speed on mechanical properties and fracture morphology of friction stir welded pure copper butt joints

The key goal of this research was to study the effect of the traverse speed of a tool on microstructural changes, mechanical properties and fracture morphology of pure copper butted weld joint by friction stir welding technique. In this study, other parameters like tool rotational speed (1000 rpm), axial force (4.2 kN), tilt angle (0˚) and tool offset (0 mm) were fixed. A cylindrical tool with a non-threaded tapered pin was used to fabricate the weld joints. All the weld joints produced by varying the traverse speeds (11, 20 and 24 mm min−1) were defect-free. It was noticed that the grains in the stir zone were tiny, well distributed and homogeneous at 24 mm min−1 owing to the adequate heat generation and complete intermixing of material in the stir zone. The utmost tensile strength of 187 MPa was achieved by the welded joint attained at 24 mm min−1. It was observed that a densely populated dimple structure enhances the joint ductility in the case of 24 mm min−1.