Influence of tool pin and shoulder geometries on microstructure of friction stir processed AA6063/SiC composites

The present study investigated the combined effect of friction stir processing (FSP) tool pin and shoulder profiles on particle distribution and microstructure of AA6063/SiC composites. Two strategies were used, in first strategy, plain cylindrical, tapered cylindrical, square and triangular tool pin profiles were used with flat shoulder design. In second strategy square and cylindrical pin profiles were used along with clock-wise (CW) and anti clock-wise (ACW) scrolled shoulder design. Single pass processing was performed to fabricate the composites. Microstructure examination of sample processed with various pin profiles and flat shoulder design reveals that tool with square pin profile was most effective. Among other shoulder profiles, ACW scrolled shoulder resulted in pancake shaped stir zone (SZ) and exhibited significant improvement in SZ size, out of which ACW scrolled shoulder with cylindrical pin profile produced uniform particle distribution without any defects.