Enabling Automation of Friction Stir Welding: The Modulation of Weld Seam Input Energy by Traverse Speed Force Control

Friction stir welding (FSW) joins materials by plunging a rotating tool into the work piece. The tool consists of a shoulder and a pin that plastically deforms the parent materials and then forges them together under the applied pressure. To create the pressure needed for forging, a rather large axial force must be maintained on the tool. Maintaining this axial force is challenging for robots due to their limited load capacity and compliant nature. To address this problem, force control has been used, and historically, the force has been controlled by adjusting the plunge depth of the tool into the work piece. This paper develops the use of tool traverse speed as the controlling variable instead of plunge depth. To perform this investigation, a FSW force controller was designed and implemented on a retrofitted Milwaukee Model K milling machine. The closed loop proportional, integral plus derivative (PID) control architecture was tuned using the Ziegler–Nichols method. Results show that the control of axial force via traverse speed is feasible and predictable. The resulting system is more robust and stable when compared with a force controller that uses plunge depth as the controlling variable. A standard deviation of 41.5 N was obtained. This variation is much less when compared with a standard deviation of 129.4 N obtained when using plunge depth. Using various combinations of PID control, the system’s response to step inputs was analyzed. From this analysis, a feed forward transfer function was modeled that describes the machinery and welding environment. From these results, a technique is presented regarding weld seam input energy modulation as a by product of force control via traverse speed. A relative indication of thermal energy in the welding environment is obtained with the feedback of axial force. It is hypothesized that, while under force control, the controller modulates weld seam input energy according to the control signal. The result is constant thermomechanical conditions in the welding environment. It is concluded that the key enablers for force control are the unidirectional behavior and load dynamics of the traverse motor. Larger bandwidths and more stable weld conditions emerge when using traverse speed instead of plunge depth to control the force. Force control of FSW via traverse speed has importance in creating efficient automatic manufacturing operations. The intelligence of the controller naturally selects the most efficient traverse speed.