Microstructural and mechanical properties of friction and MIAB welded carbon steel tubes and forging bracket joints

Abstract Continuous drive friction welding (CDFW) and magnetic impelled arc butt (MIAB) welding are solid-state welding techniques, in which bonding is achieved at temperatures below the material melting point. Although CDFW welding has been widely used in automotive and aeronautics industry, MIAB welding has not been commonly used yet. The present study involves the comparison of CDFW and MIAB welding for joining medium carbon steel tubes and medium carbon forging brackets together, which are widely used for the construction of drivetrain applications in automotive industry. Optimum parameters are presented for both techniques by using macro- and microstructural analysis, hardness, tensile and petal tests. Based on the analyses presented in this study, MIAB welding can be an alternative to CDFW for structural automobile parts.