Fundamentals of Friction Stir Welding and Processing
Tony Reynolds is a chaired, full professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina. Reynolds obtained his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Virginia in 1990. Since 1998 his research group has been working in the areas of friction stir welding and processing (FSW/P). Since 2004, Reynolds has been the site director at USC for a multi-University NSF I/UCRC, The Center for Friction Stir Processing. Reynolds’ group has published more than 70 ISI articles on FSW/P which articles have garnered over 2000 citations.
Emphases of the group's research include FSW process development for aluminum alloys, steels, and titanium as well as characterization of weld performance and process simulation. The group is also currently investigating other friction-based, solid-state, materials processing techniques. In addition to his academic research, Reynolds has also served as a consultant to SKB (The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company) for their FSW process development for sealing of copper nuclear waste containers.
Yuri Hovanski is currently a Research Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He earned a B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Brigham Young University, and then completed his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Washington State University. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, and actively participates in AWS and TMS serving on the forming and shaping, as well as joining committees. He has participated in friction stir related research for more than a decade investigating weld formability, abnormal grain growth, and the influence of post-weld microstructure and texture on mechanical properties.
More recently, he has focused on the development of low-cost solutions for friction stir welding, introducing cost efficient solutions for thermal telemetry, new tool materials and production techniques for friction stir spot welding tooling, and utilizing thermo-hydrogen processing to aid friction stir welding of titanium alloys. He continues this effort today furthering the capability of friction stir spot welding in a variety of advanced high strength steel alloys, and recently introducing scribed tooling that enables lap welding of highly dissimilar materials. He actively reviews friction stir related literature for several publications and has documented his work in more than 25 publications.
