On the mechanical integrity of welded joints made by Hybrid Metal Extrusion & Bonding Mechanical and microstructure characterisation of aluminium and aluminium-steel butt welds

Abstract

This doctoral thesis is concerned with experimental studies of aluminium-aluminium and aluminium-steel butt welds made by Hybrid Metal Extrusion & Bonding (HYB). The primary objective of the work has been to evaluate the mechanical performance of these joints and benchmark the HYB performance against conventional welding techniques currently being used for industrial welding of aluminium alloys. Based on this work it is found that the HYB method, at its current stage of development, has reached the friction stir benchmark level in terms of joint mechanical properties for butt welding of aluminium plates and profiles. Moreover, when it comes to aluminium-steel butt welding, the HYB joint mechanical integrity exceed that reported for all other comparable welds. This indicates that HYB has a competitive advantage in multi-material welding when it comes to joint mechanical integrity.