Investigating the feasibility of depositing AA6061-T6 alloy over mild steel by friction surfacing

This paper examines the feasibility of using friction surfacing to deposit Aluminum alloy AA6061 material over an AISI 1017 steel substrate. Further, this work aims to identify the deposition speed settings that would improve the effectiveness of the process. Consumable AA6061-T6 rods were deposited at different combinations of rotational and travel speeds while maintaining the same axial pressing force. The experiment involved 12 speed combinations with 3 replicates from each combination. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to evaluate speed effects on the overall deposition quality. The evaluation involved different quality indicators including deposition efficiency and stability, surface roughness, deposit hardness and microstructure. Analysis has shown that the rotational speed is the primary factor that significantly affects all of the studied indicators. The travel speed, on the other hand, was found to have significant effects only on deposition efficiency and material hardness.