Some experimental investigations on friction welded stainless steel joints

Friction welding is a solid state process and it is best suited for joining similar and dissimilar materials. It circumvents the problems associated with the traditional fusion joining processes. Because of the superior properties, it is pertinent to use stainless steels in various automotive, aerospace, nuclear, chemical and cryogenic applications. This present study emphasizes on joints of two types of industrially important stainless steels such as austenitic and ferritic stainless steels. The present study utilized a continuous drive friction welding machine to process similar joints. Cylindrical specimens of austenitic stainless steel and ferritic stainless steel of similar composition and shape (equal diameter and length) were used in this study. The processed joints were tested through uni axial tension test, impact test and hardness test. Microstructural studies were also carried out. The characteristics such as tensile strength, toughness, hardness across the joint zone and microstructural aspects exhibited by friction processed joints were compared to the respective parent materials. Joints processed by this method exhibited better properties when compared to the fusion processed joints.