Friction Stir Welding (FSW) - innovative welding technology

FRICTION STIR WELDING

UNBEATABLE WELD QUALITY FOR CRITICAL APPLICATIONS

Friction stir welding - the method

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a welding process without any added filler material. It uses frictional heating to soften the pieces of material being joined in such a way that they merge without melting into a liquid state. Two workpieces are butted together and then a hard, rotating tool with a special tip profile – with a pin and a shoulder – is pressed into the joint and travels along its length. The heat produced under the shoulder of the tool plasticizes the material without reaching the melting point. The material flows around the rotating pin and becomes consolidated into a homogeneous mass, forming a strong joint on cooling.

Applications

FSW is used mainly for lightweight vehicle construction for the railway, automotive, aerospace and shipbuilding industries as well as in industrial process equipment.

Benefits of 
welding 
with FSW

  • High welding speeds
  • Fully automated process monitoring and control
  • High weld strength
  • Minimal welding distortion due to low heat input
  • High reproducibility
  • No filler materials or shielding gas needed
  • Simple process
  • Welding of mixed materials possible

HAGE FSW process

1

HAGE

Consulting

Years of experience
Solutions tailored to customer-specific requirements:

  • Highly rigid machine concept
  • Optimum workpiece geometries
  • Appropriate clamping concept
  • Determination of process parameters and times
  • FSW Standard DIN EN ISO 25239 - Part 1–5
CUSTOMER

Consulting

  • Optimised design of the component/workpiece
  • Selection of suitable processes, options and alternatives
  • Determination of the production parameters
  • Development of concepts

 

2

HAGE

Preliminary testing

  • Preliminary testing in the HAGE Competence Center
  • Position- and force-controlled welding tests
  • Geometrical testing
  • Process and parameter studies
  • Development of clamping concepts
  • Production of initial samples
CUSTOMER

Capabilities

  • Assessment of the feasibility
  • Production of sample parts
  • General conditions
  • Cost/benefit analysis

 

3

HAGE

Special-purpose machine construction

  • Development of plant concepts
  • Flexible production lines for singleor multi-purpose FSW processing
  • Clamping device (semi- or fully automatic)
CUSTOMER

Integration

  • Assessment of the requisite infrastructre (space, energy requirement, etc.)
  • Definition of the interfaces and system integration

 

4

HAGE

Process development

  • FSW parameter studies in the HAGE Competence Center
  • FSW tool development
  • Process stability and optimisation
  • Force analyses
  • Implementation of various studies (e.g. RPT, Bobbin Tool)
CUSTOMER

Initial phase

  • Acquisition of technology know-how/empirical values
  • Training, certification of the employees
  • Preparation of the procedural instructions

 

5

HAGE

Process optimisation

  • Reduction in cycle times
  • Increase in welding speed
  • Increase in tool lifetime
  • Process certificates
  • Operation training

6

HAGE

Process monitoring

  • Real-time process monitoring
  • Measuring process parameters up to 100 kHz (force, torque, position, speed, etc.)
  • Analysis of welding defects
  • Real-time communication with the machine controller
  • 3D geometry scan of the weld joint
CUSTOMER

(Series)Production

  • Systematic increase of the process stability
  • Documentation and monitoring of the process
  • Machine protection
  • Optimisation of the component and the FSW process