JP2006026701A - Friction stir welding method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a friction stir welding method for minimizing the starting point and the completing end of welding. <P>SOLUTION: The friction stir welding method, by which welding is performed by inserting a rotating tool (59) into materials (1, 2) to be welded such as metallic materials and moving the tool along welding zones (S1, S2), is characterized in that when a plurality of welding zones (S1, S2) independently exist in the materials (1, 2) to be welded, the tool (59) is moved to other welding zones continuously in a state inserted in the materials (1, 2) to be welded. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a friction stir welding method used for joining metal materials and the like.

  In recent years, the friction stir welding method has come to be frequently used as a means for joining metal materials such as aluminum. In the friction stir welding method, a tool made of a material that is harder than the material of the material to be joined and has a high melting temperature is inserted into the joint of the material to be joined, and the tool is moved while being rotated. This is a method of softening and joining materials to be joined by frictional heat generated between them (see Patent Document 1).

4A is a plan view showing an example of the friction stir welding method, FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line FF in FIG. 4A, and FIG. 4C is taken along the line GG in FIG. It is sectional drawing, and is the example which piles up the upper plate 53 which processed the communication hole 55 on the lower plate 56 which formed the L-shaped groove | channel 51 previously, and joins both by the friction stir welding method, and forms a pipe line.
As shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, at the friction stir welding start point x, the upper plate 53 is positioned at an appropriate distance f from the center in the width direction of the groove 51 as shown in FIG. The small and large pin-shaped probe 58 protrudes on the end axis of the large cylindrical rotor 57 as shown in FIG. 1 and presses the tool 59 provided integrally therewith while rotating at high speed.
As a result, the probe 58 is inserted deeper while the upper plate 53 is extremely softened and stirred by frictional heat at the tip of the probe 58 of the tool 59, and the lower surface of the rotor 57 of the tool 59 is inserted into the upper plate 53. Until it touches the top surface of

Next, as shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, the tool 59 is rotated along the groove 51 while rotating the tool 59 in the direction of the arrow, for example, while maintaining the distance f in the width direction of the groove 51. To do. Then, in the vicinity of the contact portion between the tool 59 and the upper and lower plates 53 and 56, it is softened by frictional heat and stirred by the probe 58, and as the tool 59 moves, the softened stirring portion moves in the direction of travel of the probe 58. After the plastic flow so as to wrap around the rear side, the upper plate 53 and the lower plate 56 are joined simultaneously with rapid cooling and solidification.
As the tool 59 is moved, this phenomenon is repeated to make a round around the groove 51 and pass through the joining start point x. Then, the tool 59 is pulled upward to complete a series of joining operations.

FIGS. 5 (a), 5 (b), 6 and 7 show examples of conventional friction stir welding, in which grooves 61, 62 and 63 formed on the lower plate 56 are respectively formed on the upper side. An example is shown in which the plates 53 are set in an overlapping manner and the entire circumference is joined along the circumferential green portion of each of the grooves 61, 62, 63. Corresponding to each of the grooves 61, 62, 63, there are joining start points x1, x2, x3 and joining final ends (tool drawing points) y1, y2, y3.
FIG. 6 shows an example in which ribs 67, 68 and 69 are joined to the flat plate 65, and a joining start point x and a joining final end y are generated for each of the ribs 67, 68 and 69.
FIG. 7 shows an example in which the flat plates 71, 72, and 73 are joined to each other, and the joining start points x1, x2, and x3 and the joining final ends y1, y2, and y3 are generated corresponding to the joining lines.

  The friction stir welding method described above is advantageous in that it is not limited to the type of metal material, and there is little deformation due to thermal strain during joining, but the following drawbacks have been pointed out.

  First, it takes time to insert the probe 58 at the joining start point. That is, when the probe 58 is inserted by pressing the tool 59 while rotating the tool 59, it takes time until the contact portion is softened by frictional heat. Usually, the insertion speed of the tool 59 is about 1/50 of the moving speed on the plane, but the joining work with many joining start points hinders the work efficiency. It was a factor.

Secondly, when the tool 59 is pulled out at the joint final end portions y1, y2, and y3, holes remain depending on the diameter and insertion depth of the probe 58.
This hole is filled and repaired by another welding work or a method of filling with molten metal after the joining work is completed, or a waste meat part is provided outside, and the joining work is extended to the waste meat part. The method etc. which cut | disconnect and remove | eliminate are employ | adopted (refer patent document 2, 3).

However, these methods require extra steps, require a long time for the joining work, and increase the cost.
Japanese Patent No. 2792233 (FIG. 1) Japanese Patent No. 326275 (FIG. 1) JP 2000-42762 A (FIG. 1)

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a friction stir welding method for minimizing a joining start point and a joining final end.

  The present invention proposes the following means in order to solve the above problems.

  The friction stir welding method according to the present means is a friction stir welding method in which a rotating tool is inserted into a material to be joined such as a metal material and moved along the joining portion. When the joint part exists independently, the tool is continuously moved to another joint part with the tool inserted into the material to be joined.

  According to this friction stir welding method, even if there are a plurality of joints on the member to be joined, the joining start point and the final joining end that occur during friction stir welding are each one place.

  The friction stir welding method according to claim 1, comprising the above means, is a friction stir welding method in which a rotating tool is inserted into a material to be joined such as a metal material, and the joining is performed by moving along the joining portion. When a plurality of joints exist independently in the material to be joined, since the tool is inserted into the material to be joined and moves continuously to another joint, the joints have a plurality of joints. Even if it exists, the welding start point and the final end of the joint that occur during friction stir welding become one place each, and as a result, the time for probe insertion at the welding start point is minimized, and the efficiency of the joining work is increased. It becomes. In addition, since the final end portion of the joint is only one place, the maintenance takes only a minimum time. Further, it is not necessary to attach a discarded meat portion or to cut the discarded meat portion, so that work efficiency can be improved.

  The friction stir welding method according to the present invention will be described based on Examples 1 to 3 shown in FIGS.

  (A) of FIG. 1 is a top view which shows the movement path | route of the tool in the friction stir welding method which concerns on Example 1 of this invention, (b) is sectional drawing which follows the AA arrow of (a). 1 (a) and 1 (b), independent grooves 3, 5, and 7 are formed in the lower plate 2 which is one of the materials to be joined, and the upper plate 1 which is the other of the materials to be joined is overlapped thereon. Next, for example, the tool probe is inserted while rotating the tool clockwise to the friction stir welding start point x of the groove 3, and the upper plate 1 and the lower plate 2 are locally softened to join the joint S1. Start joining.

  After that, along the peripheral green part of the groove 3, for example, the tool is moved in the directions of arrows a, i, c, and d, and the friction stir welding of the joining part S1 is performed. Then, while keeping the distance from the center in the width direction of the groove 3, the tool 59 is continuously moved to the right without pulling out the tool when reaching the welding start point x (marked with ○) when it makes a round along the peripheral green part. While rotating around (in the direction of the arrow in the figure), the arrow moves from the arrow A to the position of the peripheral green part of the groove 5 at the shortest distance through the arrow (dotted arrow).

Then, the friction stir welding of the joining portion S2 is performed by moving in the direction of the arrow along the peripheral green portion of the groove 5, and when the joining is completed over the entire circumference, the tool 59 is not pulled out and the predetermined minimum The distance and the arrow (dotted arrow) are followed to move to a predetermined position in the groove 7.
Subsequently, the tool is moved in the direction of arrow C, S, S, S along the entire circumference of the groove 7 to join the joint S3 between the upper plate 1 and the lower plate 2, and all the friction stir welding operations are completed. The tool is pulled upward at the position of the final joint end y (black circle in the figure). Here, the movement path of the tool is set in advance, and is controlled so that the joining operation is performed automatically following the shortest distance. In addition, the joining procedure in each said junction part S1, S2, S3 is performed in the procedure similar to what is shown in FIG.

  In addition, in the above, the reason why the tool 59 is rotated in the clockwise direction is that when the groove 3 is a fluid flow path groove, not only the members to be bonded 1 and 2 are simply joined, but also in FIG. Since it is required to seal the left and right upper corners of the groove 3 with higher quality, the tool 59 is rotated clockwise to perform friction stir welding. As shown in FIG. 1 (a), when joining the outer periphery of the loop-shaped joining portion S1 of the groove 3 in the counterclockwise direction, by joining the tool 59 while rotating it to the right, This is because the quality of the seal joint is found to be improved. On the contrary, when the outer periphery of the loop-shaped joining portion S1 is joined in the clockwise direction, the tool 59 may be rotated counterclockwise.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the friction stir welding method according to the second embodiment of the present invention, in which the left surfaces of the ribs 10, 11, and 12, which are the other of the materials to be joined, are joined to the flat plate 9 which is one of the materials to be joined. For example, from the welding start point x (indicated by a circle in the figure), the tool is continuously pulled out in the order indicated by arrows a, i, c, d, and o, and the shortest distance (in the figure) By moving the middle part of the joints S1, S2 and S3, and then pulling out the tool at the position of the final joint end y (black circle mark). The joining of the three joints S1, S2, and S3 is completed.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a friction stir welding method according to a third embodiment of the present invention, showing an example in which the respective flat plates 13, 15, and 17 that are materials to be joined are joined to each other, and the tool starts joining. From the point x, following the shortest distance (the dotted line portion along the arrow B in the figure) in the direction indicated by the arrows A, B, and C, the final joint end y (black circle), which is the end position of all the joining operations And the joints S1 and S2 are completed by pulling out the tool.

As described above, the tool of the friction stir welding apparatus moves the shortest distance without performing halfway drawing as if it were a single stroke, so that the joining start point and the joining end point (tool withdrawal point) can be determined. A minimum of 1 each can be provided.
As a result, the time for probe insertion at the joining start point is minimized and the efficiency of joining work is increased. In addition, since there is only one joint final end (tool extraction point), the maintenance takes only a minimum time.
Further, it is not necessary to attach a discarded meat portion or to cut the discarded meat portion, so that work efficiency can be improved.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately modified as necessary. In addition, each component in the embodiment includes those that can be easily assumed by those skilled in the art and those that are substantially the same.

(A) is a top view which shows the friction stir welding method which concerns on Example 1 of this invention, (b) is sectional drawing which follows the AA arrow of (a). It is a perspective view which shows the friction stir welding method which concerns on Example 2 of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the friction stir welding method which concerns on Example 3 of this invention. (A) is a top view explaining a friction stir welding method, (b) is sectional drawing which follows the FF arrow of (a), (c) is sectional drawing which follows the GG arrow of (a). is there. (A) is a top view which shows the conventional friction stir welding method, (b) is sectional drawing which follows the EE arrow of (a). It is a perspective view which shows the other conventional friction stir welding method. It is a perspective view which shows the other conventional friction stir welding method.

Explanation of symbols

1 Upper plate (material to be joined)
2 Lower plate (material to be joined)
S1, S2 Joint 59 Tools

Claims (1)

In a friction stir welding method in which a rotating tool is inserted into a material to be joined such as a metal material and moved along the joint, when a plurality of joints exist independently in the material to be joined. The friction stir welding method, wherein the tool is inserted into the material to be joined and is continuously moved to another joining portion.

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