Friction stir spot welding (FSSW) of Al to Ti alloys has broad applications in the aerospace and automobile industries, while its narrow joining area limits the improvement of mechanical properties of the joint. In the current study, an Al-coating was prepared on Ti6Al4V alloy by hot-dipping prior to joining, then a Zn interlayer was used during friction stir joining of as-coated Ti alloy to the 2014-Al alloy in a lap configuration to introduce a brazing zone out of the stir zone to increase the joining area. The microstructure of the joint was investigated, and the joint strength was compared with the traditional FSSW joint to confirm the advantages of this new process. Because of the increase of the joining area, the maximum fracture load of such joint is 110% higher than that of the traditional FSSW joint under the same welding parameters. The fracture load of these joints depends on the joining width, including the width of solid-state bonding region in stir zone and brazing region out of stir zone.

Keyhole at the end of a conventional friction stir welded (FSW) joint is one of the major concerns in certain applications. To address this issue, a novel keyhole refilling technique was developed for conventional friction stir spot welding (FSSW) using resistance spot welding (RSW). A three-phase secondary rectifier resistance welder was adapted for the refill of the keyhole in the 1.5 mm + 1.5 mm friction stir spot welded 2024-T4 aluminum alloy joint. The microstructure and tensile shear fracture behavior were compared for both the unfilled and refilled specimens. The results show that the plug and keyhole are dominated by solid state welding with some localized zones by fusion welding. The refill process significantly improved the maximum load capacity in tensile shear testing as the corona ring is enlarged leading to a larger bonding area. Moreover, the tensile shear fracture occurs in the refilled FSSW specimens at the corona bonding zone, while the fracture occurs at the hook zone in the unfilled keyhole.