Investigations on joining of Nylon 6 plates via novel method of heat assisted friction stir welding to find the optimum process parameters

Abstract

During this research, an attempt was made to join Nylon 6 plates via a novel method of heat assisted friction stir welding by using an external heat source. The results asserted that a sound joint with characteristics similar to the parent material can only be achieved within a certain range of welding parameters. A high quality joint with over 98% of base material strength was obtained with a proper set of parameters. Response surface methodology based on Box–Behnken design was employed to investigate the effects of the different operating conditions on mechanical properties of the joints. It was predicted that tensile strength of joints could reach up to 107.2% of the base material by using the optimised process parameters.