Process Parameter Optimization of Friction Crush Welding (FCW) of AISI 304 Stainless Steel

AISI 304 stainless steel is one of the grades of steel widely used in engineering applications particularly in chemical equipments, food processing, pressure vessels and paper industry. Friction crush welding (FCW) is type of friction welding, where there is a relative motion between the tool and work-piece. In FCW process, the edges of the work-piece to be joined are prepared with flanged edges and then placed against each other. A non-consumable friction disc tool will transverse with a constant feed rate along the edges of the work-piece, which leads to welding. The joint is formed by the action of crushing a certain amount of additional flanged material into the gap formed by the contacting material. The novelty of present work is that FCW removes the limitations of friction stir welding and Steel work pieces can be economically welded by FCW. Taguchi method of Design of Experiments (DOE) is used to find optimal process parameters of Friction Crush Welding (FCW). A L9 Orthogonal Array, Signal to Noise ratio (S/N) and Analysis of Variance are applied to analyze the effect of welding parameters (welding speed, RPM, tool profile) on the weld properties like bond strength. Grain refinement takes place in friction crush welding as is seen in friction stir welding. Friction crush welding process also has added advantage in reducing distortion and residual stresses.