Solid-state cladding on thin automotive sheet metals enabled by additive friction stir deposition

•Additive friction stir deposition enables good cladding on 1.4 mm-thin substrates.•The reinforced structure is characterized by good formability and high strength.•The mechanical forces from the tool cause no local buckling in the thin substrates.•The residual stress and mismatch strain are first quantified for this new process.•The maximum tensile stress is around 40 MPa and the mismatch strain is 7.37×10-4.