ABSTRACT

Friction stir welding (FSW) is an established technique for joining of metallic/nonmetallic sheets of different geometries for various applications. The joining practice of similar thermoplastic sheets is an easy and established process, but joining of dissimilar thermoplastic is always a challenge to scientists/researchers as they possess different melt flow, melting point, molecular density, carbon chain length and other material characteristics. In the present study, rapid tooling has been introduced by 3D printing for better applicability of the FSW process. For the practical applicability of FSW in the related repair/assembly operation it is required to have an excellent compatibility between two dissimilar polymers from mechanical, morphological, chemical and thermal viewpoints. In the present study, reinforcement of 15% Al metal powder to ABS (as ABS-15Al) and 50% to PA6 (as PA)-50Al resulted in the similar MFI range of 11.57g/10min and 11.97g/10 with a similar melting point range confirmed the enhanced material compatibility with provision of FSW. The welded specimen with use of rapid tooling has been investigated by measuring the mechanical properties such as peak load, peak strength, break load, break strength, peak elongation, break elongation, Shore D hardness, tool consumption rate and morphological properties as percentage porosity and grain size at joints.