Multi-material based functionally graded billets manufacturing through friction stir consolidation of aluminium alloys chips

New deal of Friction Stir Consolidation (FSC) is its evolution from Recycling technique towards Upcycling. In this paper, the potential of FSC to manufacture Functionally Graded billets is proved. Processing chips of two different aluminium alloys (AA7075, AA2011-T3), graded hardness distributions were obtained along the longitudinal direction of the manufactured billet. Material flow was analysed by EDX analyses and numerical simulations; mechanical properties were assessed through hardness measurements. The influence of material's position, mass fraction of each material and process parameters was considered. Results reveal that FSC offers a proper control in the design of billets with graded properties.