Experimental study of effects of process parameters in forge-welding bimetallic materials: AISI 316L stainless steel and 6063 aluminium alloy

Forge welding is a process that can overcome the limitations of friction welding and diffusion bonding for joining dissimilar metals, while still permitting a large amount of plastic deformation. However, the available information about forge welding of dissimilar metals is rare as most studies have focused on joining similar metals. This paper reports an investigation on effects of process parameters in forge-welding bimetallic materials: AISI 316L stainless steel and 6063 aluminium alloy. Experiments were carried out under variations in process parameters, including forge-welding temperature, amount of deformation and forging speed. The results showed that the forge-welding temperature was the most significant process parameter and that this could highly influence the tensile strength of the joint. The quality joint was produced successfully. It could withstand the tensile strength of 111.3 MPa and this was comparable to the findings of other researchers. The diffusion zone of the joint was examined by the optical micrograph and elemental composition analysis. Intermetallic compounds were found in the diffusion zone, which was critical evidence for the validity of the experiment. Journal compilation