Friction Stir Process: A Comprehensive Review on Material and Methodology

In recent year, advancement of the materials and processing of the material identified as research zone to make an impact in aerospace, automobile, marine and bio-medical implants application. Improvement of the material structure and surface associated with high energy requirements as well as may contain environments harmful content, like physical and chemical vapor deposition consumes high energy and extract toxic elements. Friction stir process (FSP) is surface modification and surface composites fabrication process, which works as a solid-state process. This process based on friction between the tool and workpiece which generates heat used for modification of the material. There is no fumes generation and low energy requirement, so it comes under the domain of green technology. Customized vertical milling machine is used to perform friction stir process/welding. In this review paper, an attempt has been made to study the FSP process at a glance with brief bibliometric analysis of relevant research in last two decades. Influence of the key process parameters i.e., rotational speed, traverse speed, tool geometry and machining parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties have also been discussed. A case study on the process parameter optimization range has been done to ensure the range of parameters. This study helps to reduce the defects during the process and improve the associated properties of the processed material. Potential difficulties and the possible measures have also been suggested for giving the future direction.