Welding of Aluminum Alloys to Steels: An Overview

Since the need for the joining of dissimilar materials is increasing, the wide range of requirements of the numerous industries would lead to the development of new welding techniques or at least to improvement of the existing technologies capable of joining the components from the miniature assemblies to extremely large earth-moving vehicles. Among the different materials, iron-based alloys and aluminum-based alloys are the most significant materials that are finding applications in the various industries to offer more viable and sustainable products. However, welding of these metals has been always a kind of dilemma for the engineers. There are a certain number of methods to join these dissimilar metals but no one could establish a reliable or a sort of credible welding method for the industrial applications while quality, cost, human resources and facilities are taken into the main considerations. This paper reviews the recent works on the joining of different aluminum alloys to different steels. The effect of the joining conditions on the formation of intermetallics and microstructural development, mechanical properties and applications of the joints are discussed.