Never heard of this before.

I knew of the friction welding process. I had remembered reading a story in CCC of how David Finlay had modified his gearbox when a friend friction welded two different gearshafts together giving hybrid ratios. So, a quick youtube search showed a few videos - neat, so that's how friction welding works.

But the associated link showed friction stir welding too.....

Basically, heat the metal by spinning a tool against the surface until it melts at which point the tool is plunged into the molten metal where it stirs the metals from either side of the join. This is other worldly to me this sort of stuff.

Try Here

Great Stuff

Yay, I thought I was weird, and now Zil shows me I am, but I'm not the only one

I spent a good hour watching friction welding on youtube a couple of weeks ago, and saw that "stir" welding vid. Clever stuff, it's what holds airbus wings on so I believe

I have to say, it's the bigger stuff that impresses me

[Edited on 24/11/08 by UncleFista]

Very interesting, wonder if I can modify the ML7 lathe to do that

I was shown this welding method on a visit to The Welding Institute about 10 years ago and found it very interesting.
It was like rubbing a totally blunt milling cutter along the joint line.

shucks good welding practice

I see and you see nothing after this

That's pretty neat. See also friction drilling which I'd not come across before (except when I use blunt bits!): http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NhkWINPRK3A&feature=related

If friction welding is so 'easy' why is it so expensive to get driveshafts made up in this way?

To me it looks like it would take about 20seconds for one of those friction welding machines to cut a section out of a driveshaft and then friction weld it together.

I suppose the problem is the setting up.

Matt

I'd guess that most of the cost is the machine itself and setting it up. Similar thing to getting tubes bent I suppose.

The youtube videos posted are just a variation on friction welding.

Friction stir welding is a very different animal.

quote:

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Originally posted by tycho
The youtube videos posted are just a variation on friction welding.

Friction stir welding is a very different animal.

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Well I will just bung a link up to the wikipedia on it:

Friction Stir Welding

The key point with friction stir welding (compared with normal friction welding) is that it occurs below the melting point of the metal. There was a news article on Points West a few years ago as it is done at Filton on Airbus parts.

It looks interesting but you couldn't use it in any practical way unless you are building an Airbus from the Haynes manual "Build an Airbus for under £2.5 million and start a travel firm" though