Subcontract rotary friction welding: an efficient and cost-effective means to joining a wide variety of materials.
There are several benefits to utilising a subcontract friction welding facility: established and proven expertise; utilisation of industry leading friction welding machinery; no need to invest in capital equipment; multiple component manufacture across numerous sectors; a range of geometries and material combinations can be joined; material, geometry, metallurgy and pre and post weld processing advice can be available.
Component manufacture is an important element within the supply chain and for consumers, understanding exactly where those components are made is an integral part of the purchasing process, and several factors will influence why a customer decides upon a supplier; product integrity, cost, availability, proven manufacturing process and reputation.
Subcontract Rotary Friction Welding: Cost-efficient, superior bonding, suitable for mission critical applications.
RFW is suitable for an immeasurable amount of applications where it is possible to rotate two components axially.
In the case of bi-metallic, copper-aluminium connectors, there is simply no other viable method of joining these two materials directly to each other due to the difficulty presented by them having very different thermal expansion coefficients. Low-cost aluminium is joined directly to high cost copper. Other than the obvious benefit of cost reduction by limiting the use of expensive oxygen free, high conductivity copper material, reducing direct costs, waste and the increased threat of theft are also reduced. Aluminium is the optimum mating material which does not impede conductivity and is useful for ease of crimping to electrical cabling. The electrical connector market for power distribution and rail is a significant market to benefit from this solid-state bonding process.
Other industries that specify RFW as their standard bonding method include the automotive sector producing axles, cv joints, turbo chargers, airbag canisters and other such safety critical components. The aerospace industry utilises the process for manufacture of landing gear shafts, steering shafts, ejector seat components and other high integrity components. The construction and yellow goods industry use friction welding for manufacture of piston rods and hydraulic cylinders where large diameter high quality steel chromed rods are joined to eyes, yolks and pinions for heavy duty industrial service.
Mining, oil and gas industries, manufacture drill pipes and rods for deep hole water boring, directional drilling, rock drilling and oil & gas (sour) service applications whereby the integrity of the joint is paramount as it can be performing under the harshest of conditions and under extreme compressive and torsional loads or percussive forces. The cost of failure in these components can literally cost the operators millions of pounds in lost revenues. The integrity of the friction welded bond is so superior to other joining processes by offering in many cases parent material properties, that most world renowned, OEM’s across these industries own and operate their own rotary friction welding equipment to produce their safety critical components in-house.
Cryogenic applications also benefit from the processes’ ability to join dissimilar materials. For instance, stainless steel to copper and interlayered transition joints consisting of stainless steel welded to titanium by use of an aluminium alloy interlayer to facilitate bond between the stainless steel and titanium which it is not suitable for direct bonding. Joints manufactured for this industry sector perform in very low temperature environments. Again, this is a unique benefit of the process, that these very dissimilar materials can successfully be directly bonded and operate in very demanding environments.
Friction welding has also proved very successful for welding tools, such as drill bits for example. Stronger than conventional welding, friction welded drill tools have an enhanced join integrity, as the weld is as strong as the parent material. This is vital for drill tools as they are commonly used at high-speed, so the weld must be strong enough to withstand dynamic stresses endured during drilling.
Friction welding has been used in the printing roller industry, decreasing production time and reducing product weight. This method allows the machining time on endcaps to be reduced, and eliminates the need for weld preparation, further decreasing production time.
Whatever the sector, or application in which the component shall be utilized, rotary friction welded products have proven to have an enhanced structural integrity.
The question that engineers and manufacturers ask when considering their production joining and manufacturing processes is can we do this better, cheaper and more efficiently?
The answer is ‘yes’ and the solution lies in subcontract friction welding.