Comparison of Corner-Butt 45 (Cb-45) and Corner-Lap (Cl) joints in friction stir welding

The 10 mm thick Aluminum 6061 plates have been corner joined using varied design and those were 45° Corner Butt and Corner Lap Joints (CB-45 & CL). Friction tool was hardened EMS 45. True experimental method was used with independent parameters is feed rate which varied at 10 mm/min, 15 mm/min and 30 mm/min respectively. Other parameter such as rotating speed was kept constant. Experiment results show that, CB-45 yields better properties than CL. The tensile strength of CB-45 reaches 163.7 MPa for 10 mm/min feed rate. Whilst CL produces joint with tensile strength equal 120 MPa for equal parameters. Microstructure observation showed that CB-45 produces fine and homogenous appearance of MgO compared to CL. This phenomenon is caused by the pin of CB-45 joint which fully penetrates the nugget zone which is not found in CL design. This microstructure in turn promotes higher tensile strength of CB-45.