University West is a regional university with about 600 co-workers and 11500 students, founded 1990. In the research environment Production Technology West, about 90 people are engaged in research and education in production technology, with focus on welding, thermal spray, machining and automation. The work in the present proposal will be performed at the Division of Welding Technology. In total about 30 researchers and engineers are working on weld related projects and there is an extensive experience in the division, with in total four professors and where three of them have more than 30 years of experience in welding and welding metallurgy from both university and industry, two associate professors with extensive experience and two senior research engineers with more than 30 years of experience from welding research and development. The main tasks of University West will be to analyze the microstructure of FSW and LBW that primarily will be performed at TWI. Uni. West will also simulate the FSW and LBW processes using a so called Gleeble thermal mechanical simulation equipment. Weldability testing of different potential Al-alloys will be performed using a Varestraint weldability testing machine equipped with a laser source. The weldability testing trials will later on be analyzed using light optical and scanning electron microscopy.

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