Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining method in which base materials are welded by the frictional heat of two facing workpieces and a rotating tool. Since this rotating tool affects the stir properties of the workpieces, the tool wear is one of the joint failures. However, wear mechanism of the rotating tool is not clear because the tool is in the special environment such as the plastic flow of the joining materials. In this study, a basic reciprocating wear test was conducted in FSW temperature up to 500°C for a combination of aluminum alloy and cobalt alloy (36Co-26Ni). And we analyzed the under structure of wear scar using transmission EBSD, EDS and TEM.
Yoshino et al. (Wed,) studied this question.