The joint properties of brass plates by friction stir welding

Brass materials widely used as engineering materials in industry because of their high strength, high corrosion resistance, high electrical and thermal conductivity. They are easily shaped and they possess nice appearance. However, it is difficult to fusion welding of brasses. The main problem of these alloys in fusion welding is the evaporation of the zinc during the welding process. After the welding, the weld metal becomes porous. Moreover, since the amount of the zinc in the alloy is reduced due to evaporation, the brass material loses its physical and chemical properties which it normally possesses. Not being solved these problems good enough in fusion welding of brass materials, it had been directed investigators to apply new methods. It seems that friction stir welding which is one of the new method developed nowadays, will solve these problems. So, it needs experimental investigations in this subject. Even though there are so many researches in the literature about friction stir welding in aluminum and it's alloys, researches about copper and it's alloys especially brass are limited. In this research, it was pointed out friction stir welding capability especially brass plates which are 3 mm in thickness. For this reason, experiment conditions were determined and friction stir welding procedures were applied to brass plates in different rotation and welding speeds. Obtained welded joints subjected about physical virtual, mechanical tests and microstructure investigations and the results had been evaluated. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.