Comparative Investigation on Gas Tungsten Arc Welding and Friction Stir Welding of Electrolytic Tough Pitch Copper Plates

Abstract

The attempt of this work is to overcome the challenging tasks due to the inherent drawbacks of electrolytic tough pitch (ETP) copper while performing welding on it. It was a comparative investigation between gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) as well as friction stir welding (FSW) on ETP copper. The specimen is an alloy of copper (degree C11000), which consists of pure copper and silver about 99.9%. ETP copper has vast applications in the industry because of good properties such as corrosion resistance, electrical, and thermal conductivity. The GTAW process is done after cold rolling of copper, and FSW has performed after nitriding the specimen. The micro and macrostructure hardness is calculated for parent material, weldment of GTAW and FSW process to compare the variation in mechanical properties of ETP Copper with the parent material. This experimental study observed that the GTAW process is feasible to achieve defect-free weldment but FSW process can be done by investing less energy, time, and resource.