Application of Friction Stir Welding to a Railway Car Body Made of Aluminium Hollow

This paper describes an application of friction stir welding (FSW) to manufacture railway car body made of aluminium hollow extrusions (double-skinned car body). In this paper, from the viewpoint of strength, we show our approach from a design of the joint's sectional shape to the final evaluation test using actual double-skinned car body joined by FSW. As far as design of the joint, reaction force in the workpiece coincident with heat input was considered. At load test, we evaluated stress levels at the joint, accuracy of the simulation of the car body and double-skinned car body's characteristics. As a result, railway car body joined by FSW can meet all the requirements for actual application.