Weldability and its improvement of friction welded joint between ductile cast iron and 5052 Al alloy

To obtain multimaterial structures composed by various materials as the right man in the right place for improvement of the additional value of some products or parts, the easy manufacturing method of the dissimilar metal joint is necessary. This paper described the weldability and its improvement of the friction welded joint between ductile cast iron (JIS FCD400) and typical Al-Mg alloy (JIS A5052). When both materials welded, only the A5052 side was unilaterally deformed and that was exhausted as flash during the friction process regardless of the friction welding condition. The relatively high tensile strength of the joint was obtained when that was made with a friction speed of 27.5 s−1, a friction pressure of 20 MPa, a friction time of 1.5 s, and a forge pressure of 270 MPa. However, the joint had approximately 77% in the tensile strength of the A5052 base metal and that was fractured at the weld interface. The tensile strength of joints, which were made with other friction welding conditions, was lower than that of this friction welding condition. Although the weld interface of the joint had no intermetallic compound interlayer, the fractured surface at the A5052 side had the C element as the graphite particles that were supplied from the FCD400 side. To improve the joint strength, the graphite particle was reduced from the weld faying surface at the FCD400 side by decarburization treatment before welding. The joints had approximately 97% in the tensile strength of the A5052 base metal, and one of joints was fractured at the A5052 base metal. Thus, the graphite particle at the FCD400 side influenced the weldability between FCD400 and A5052. In conclusion, the joint with high tensile strength as well as the possibility for the improvement of the fractured point of them could be obtained when they were made with an opportune friction welding condition and no graphite particles at the weld faying surface of the FCD400 side.