Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid-state bonding technique. There are many direct and indirect factors affecting the mechanical and microstructural properties of the FSW joints. Tool offset, tilt angle, and plunge depth are determinative tool positioning in the FSW process. Investigating the effect of these factors simultaneously with other parameters such as process speeds (rotational speed and translational speed) and tool geometry leads to a poor understanding of the impact of these factors on the FSW process. Because the three mentioned parameters have the same origin, they should be studied separately from other process parameters. This paper investigates the effects of tilt angle, plunge depth, and tool offset on Ultimate Tensile Stress (UTS) of joints between AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T6. To design the experiments, optimization, and statistical analysis, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) has been used. Experimental tests were carried out to find the maximum achievable UTS of the joint. The optimum values were determined based on the optimization procedure as 0.7 mm of tool offset, 2.7 degrees of tilt angle, and 0.1 mm of plunge depth. These values resulted in a UTS of 281 MPa. Compared to the UTS of base metals, the joint efficiency of the optimized welded sample was nearly 90 percent.
Keywords: friction stir welding; plunge depth; tilt angle; tool offset; ultimate tensile strength.