Crack Repair Using Hybrid Additive Manufacturing and Friction Stir Processing

Abstract A hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) and friction stir processing (FSP) was used to heal a crack in 6 mm thick Al 6061-T6 aluminum alloy. AL-6061 is usually used in H2 high-pressure vessel fabrication as well as aerospace applications. In this work, Al-Si powder was utilized to fill the crack, then FSP was applied to consolidate and stir the powder with the base metal to fill and close the crack zone. Effect of FSP parameters including welding speed and tool rotation speed on the quality of repair was studied. Various mechanical tests, as well as characterization techniques such as hardness test, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), were employed to study the newly developed hybrid process on the quality of the repair. The investigation revealed that low rotational speed of 800 rpm results in minimum variation in microhardness. Moreover, the impact of welding speed on microhardness is smaller as compared to rotational speed.