Improve the quality of 1060Al/Q235 explosive composite plate by friction stir processing

Abstract The common aluminum/steel composite plates made by explosive welding often have steel cuttings, holes, cracks and other defects at the interface, which make the component premature failure. Friction stir processing (FSP) can make the microstructures stirred strongly, forming the uniform and fine structure, also repairing the defects. However, how to improve the quality of composite plate by FSP is still in blank and needs to be investigated. Results show that FSP can repair defects of the interface for aluminum/steel composite plate and improve the bonding strength of composite plate by metallurgical connection. Also, the nanocrystals formed by FSP have a significant improvement to the bonding strength of interface. When the overlap (l/d) is 5/25 and the multi-pass is three, the aluminum/steel composite plates after FSP exhibit good mechanical properties. The smaller overlap (l/d) will obtain higher efficiency, which shows attractive application for the repairing of composite plate.