Friction surface cladding: development of a solid state cladding process

Many industries including automotive, aerospace, electronics, shipbuilding, offshore, railway and heavy equipment employ surface modification technologies to change the surface properties of a manufactured product. Often, the surface is covered (coated) with a dissimilar clad layer for this purpose and the lifetime expectancy of the manufactured product is improved. A new solid state cladding process for metals (Friction Surface Cladding, FSC) has been developed at the University of Twente. This process provides researchers and industrial practitioners of surface engineering with an alternative to existing surface modification technologies. The FSC process allows the deposition of clad material on a substrate through a hollow rotating tool in order to form thin clad layers at elevated temperatures. Elevated temperatures below the melting point occur because the heat generation of the process solely relies on interfacial friction and plastic deformation. This thesis is dedicated to delivering a proof of concept for the FSC process by developing an experimental setup which is able to deposit clad layers. It is a first step towards the full exploration of the possibilities of the process. Furthermore, an understanding of the process is required to improve the controllability of the process for the deposition of high quality clad layers with desired dimensions. A comprehensive study has been performed which focussed on the deposition of a relatively soft AA1050 clad material on an AA2024 substrate, although the FSC process might also be used for different material combinations. The study is categorized according to the following subjects: (1) demonstration of the FSC process, (2) study on the bonding behaviour and (3) controllability of the process.