Effect of Welding Speeds on Mechanical Properties of Level Compensation Friction Stir Welded 6061-T6 Aluminum Alloy

In order to eliminate the flash, arc corrugation and concave in weld zone, level compensation friction stir welding (LCFSW) was put forward and successfully applied to weld 6061-T6 aluminum alloy with varied welding speed at a constant tool rotational speed of 1,800 rpm in the present study. The glossy joint with equal thickness of base material can be attained, and the shoulder affected zone (SAZ) was obviously reduced. The results of transverse tensile test indicate that the tensile strength and elongation reach the maximum values of 248 MPa and 7.1% when the welding speed is 600 mm/min. The microhardness of weld nugget (WN) is lower than that of base material. The tensile fracture position locates at the heat affected zone (HAZ) of the advancing side (AS), where the microhardness is the minimum. The fracture surface morphology represents the typical ductile fracture.