Friction Stir Spot Welding of Advanced High Strength Steels

Friction stir spot welding was used to join two advanced high-strength steels using polycrystalline cubic boron nitride tooling. Numerous tool designs were employed to study the influence of tool geometry on weld joints produced in both DP780 and a hot-stamp boron steel. Tool designs included conventional, concave shouldered pin tools with several pin configurations; a number of shoulderless designs; and a convex, scrolled shoulder tool. Weld quality was assessed based on lap shear strength, microstructure, microhardness, and bonded area. Mechanical properties were functionally related to bonded area and joint microstructure, demonstrating the necessity to characterize processing windows based on tool geometry.