Effect of parallel deposition path and interface material flow on resulting microstructure and tensile behavior of Al-Mg-Si alloy fabricated by additive friction stir deposition

In this paper, the effect of overlapping parallel additive depositions on microstructure and mechanical properties in Additive Friction Stir Deposition (AFS-D) was examined. In particular, the AFS-D process was employed to make parallel depositions of AA6061 with a 6.35 mm overlap to effectively bond the two parallel layers. The AFS-D process draws on similar physics to friction stir welding in that frictional heat and plastic deformation is exploited to deposit metallic materials from the center of a hollow rotating tool as it traverses across the build table to produce consecutive metallurgically bonded layers. In this work, the microstructural aspects of the 6.35 mm overlapping raster interface were characterized using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Aluminum oxide particles were observed at the raster interface, which were located at layer boundaries. Additional grain refinement was also apparent as a direct result of multiple stirring passes within the overlapping deposition region. Mechanical characterization via microindentation and monotonic tensile testing observed a hardness gradient in the overlapping region, but the parallel deposition layers exhibited comparable tensile strength to a single row of deposited AA6061. The influence of existing oxides on the mechanical results was observed to have limited effect on the properties longitudinally across the raster. This study determined that parallel layers of AA6061 can be successfully deposited via the AFS-D technique. The resulting deposit exhibited a strong metallurgical bond across the parallel layers despite the presence of surface oxidation on the unprepared feedstock and substrate.