Friction/ Inertia Welding

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[/B][/B]Hi, I'm doing a research paper on friction welding and am hoping to talk to someone in the business.A couple questions :  Minimum order ?  Pricing ?  Minimum- Maximum sizes able to do?  Machine manufacture / price of equipment  Skills needed to operate machine  Training- easy or difficult Either e-mail  ( [email protected] ) or I can call you after 5:30 PM ESTThanks, Ron
Reply:Most of your questions can be easily answered if you do your own research, I just got done a research paper on FSW and it took quite a bit of my own legwork to complete.There is a really good book called Friction Stir Welding and Processing, if you can get your hands on a copy from a library its all you'll ever need.Last edited by sn0border88; 03-15-2011 at 02:33 PM.Have we all gone mad?
Reply:try contacting  http://www.twi.co.uk/
Reply:Let me Google that for you.
Reply:or here http://www.ajt-inc.com/Miller Xmt 350Lincoln Ln-25Ahp 200xSmith Gas Mixer AR/HTig is my Kung FuThrowing down dimes and weaving aboutInstagram http://instagram.com/[email protected]
Reply:I can't answer your questions, at least not without Googling them, but I want to relate my experience with inertia welding, actually more along the lines of exposure to the process.I worked in the military jet engine manufacture and overhaul business for several years. As most know, a jet engine basically draws in air, compresses it through a series of fans through a narrowing cylinder, mixes fuel with it and ignites it, then uses the expanding gas to produce thrust and turn the front compressor section,.  Suck, squeeze, burn, and blow if you will.  In previous designs, the blades that moved the air were mounted on disks through a dovetail joint.  Each disk was separated from the preceding and succeeding disks with round spacers  with somewhere around sixteen disks, or stages in the compressor section and the same setup in the turbine section where work was extracted from the hot gases.  The stages were all held together by long tie bolts.  Several different approaches were tried, but all had problems when it came to taking the assembly apart, remanufacturing it, then getting it all straight and vibration free.  The disks and spacers in the current designs are all built up into a single unit called a drum , that is inertia welded together.  The machine that does it locks one disk or spacer down, then spins the next part of the assembly up to 10,000 RPM then presses it as it is spinning into the stationary part.  When it fuses together, it makes a loud BAM and the clutches kick in.  When the drum is assembled it ends up as an assembly up to 8' long and 5' in diameter.  The blades are then inserted in slots around each stage, and into an engine it goes.  It saves enormous amounts of assembly/disassembly time, is vibration free, and very strong.Whenever I went to the GE engine plant near Cincinnati, I always weld to the intertia welding area just to see the drums being made.Steve