Improving joint features and tensile shear properties of friction stir lap welded joint by an optimized bottom-half-threaded pin tool

To increase the lap shear failure load of friction stir lap welding (FSLW) joint, a tool with a bottom-half-threaded pin was designed in the present study. Using 7N01-T4 aluminum alloy as the research object, tools with the bottom-half-threaded pin and the traditional full-threaded pin were used to fabricate lap joints. Results showed that the thread end position on the pin greatly influenced the material flow behavior. The material concentrated zone using the bottom-half-threaded pin mainly located above the lap interface, which is beneficial to suppress the hook and cold lap. The lap shear failure load of the FSLW joint using the bottom-half-threaded pin was 17,644.7 N, which is equal to 122.8 % of the joint using the full-threaded pin.