Is this technique suitable for welding aluminium plates? Can a welded area produced with such technique be considered as insulated?
I think you can go for friction stir welding. In this solid state joining technique the weld bid is very small and extent of HAZ is also negligible. Variation of properties in welded zone and base metal is very less. Hope this technique will be helpful for your research
please provide more information such as plate thickness and what do u mean by "insulated"etc. Yeah Sikdar is also right. Apart from FSW, Laser Welding and EBW also produce very small HAZ.
Depending on thickness and stress cycles the work piece will hold, you can eaither consider soldering if you want the parts be sealed.
Depending on the end application, various methods can be suggested. FSW will be easier to weld thick plates, Laser may deviate due to high reflection of aluminium. I will suggest to go for micro-TIG welding. These starts at 0.1 A current and a cost effective medium then LASER or Electron beam.
You can refer one of my paper, the link is given below,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1350630713002963
I think this information will help you.....good luck
FSW is definitely the best method if you can use it. if there can be problems with joints design and reach-ability use laser, if you can use vacuum and need high quality and thickness use EB: