Nowadays, 3D printers, which have a wide range of applications, continue to become widespread and are more and more common. As a result, in addition to the visuality of the parts produced with this method, their mechanical properties have gained importance depending on where they are used. In addition to the many conveniences, it provides during the design and production phases according to traditional methods the features of the printing parameters used, especially the printing direction and angle, which vary depending on the direction. For this reason, it is necessary to determine how the mechanical properties change depending on these parameters. In this study, compression, tensile, and bending tests were carried out with samples produced by the FDM method using polyamide (PA) and carbon fiber reinforced PA (PA-CF) filaments. The effects of fiber reinforcement, raster angle, and frame on the mechanical properties were evaluated. The porosity of manufactured parts was also discussed.

In this study the effect of the weld current on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a resistance spot-welded twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel sheet was investigated using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy–electron back-scattered diffraction (SEM–EBSD), microhardness measurements, a tensile shear test and fractography. Higher weld currents promoted the formation of a macro expulsion cavity in the fusion zone. Additionally, higher weld currents led to a higher indentation depth, a wider heat-affected zone (HAZ), coarser grain structure and thicker annealing twins in the HAZ, and a relatively equiaxed dendritic structure in the centre of the fusion zone. The hardness values in the weld zone were lower than that of the base metal. The lowest hardness values were observed in the HAZ. No strong relationship was observed between the hardness values in the weld zone and the weld current. A higher joint strength, tensile deformation and failure energy absorption capacity were obtained with a weld current of 12 kA, a welding time of 300 ms and an electrode force of 3 kN. A complex fracture surface with both brittle and limited ductile manner was observed in the joints, while the base metal exhibited a ductile fracture. Joints with a higher tensile shear load (TSL) commonly exhibited more brittle fracture characteristics.

Nowadays, environmental impact, safety and fuel efficiency are fundamental issues for the automotive industry. These objectives are met by using a combination of different types of steels in the auto bodies. Therefore, it is important to have an understanding of how dissimilar materials behave when they are welded. This paper presents the process parameters’ optimization procedure of fiber laser welded dissimilar high strength low alloy (HSLA) and martensitic steel (MART) steel using a Taguchi approach. The influence of laser power, welding speed and focal position on the mechanical and microstructural properties of the joints was determined. The optimum parameters for the maximum tensile load-minimum heat input were predicted, and the individual significance of parameters on the response was evaluated by ANOVA results. The optimum levels of the process parameters were defined. Furthermore, microstructural examination and microhardness measurements of the selected welds were conducted. The samples of the dissimilar joints showed a remarkable microstructural change from nearly fully martensitic in the weld bead to the unchanged microstructure in the base metals. The heat affected zone (HAZ) region of joints was divided into five subzones. The fusion zone resulted in an important hardness increase, but the formation of a soft zone in the HAZ region.

AA6082-T6 alloy was joined by friction stir spot welding using five different pin profiles, namely cylindrical, conical, triangular, hexagonal, and cylindrical with two grooves, at different dwell time. The joints welded by cylindrical pins had larger effective weld width. However, grooves on the cylindrical pin decreased the effective weld width. In the weld made with the hexagonal pin, the hook was bent downward from the interface of the sheets and had the smallest effective weld width. When the conical pin was used, the effective weld width increased with increasing dwell time. In the case of using tools with cylindrical and conical pins, HAZ hardness was relatively lower. With increasing dwell time, HAZ hardness of the joints made with the conical pin decreased. Effective weld width determined the weld strength under the tensile shear loading condition: larger effective weld width resulted in higher weld strength. Weld strength of the joints made with cylindrical pins was higher. The joints fabricated with hexagonal pins had the lowest weld strength. In general, higher dwell time led to higher weld strength. The welds with the higher strength experienced both brittle and ductile fractures, while the joints with the lower strength exhibited completely brittle fracture.