Friction Welding System

Coldwater Machine Company has taken its proven capability as a custom mechanical solutions supplier to become the key integrator for German-based Harms+Wende precision controlled, pneumatic, friction weld heads. The new turnkey friction welding system, Coldwater Machine Company model FWS-30, is designed for small part joining to a broad range of part configurations and dissimilar materials.

Friction welding is a process of joining parts utilizing heat generated by rotating one part at a high speed while bringing it into contact with the stationary part to which it will be welded. Once the temperature of the material has been achieved through rotational friction, the rotating element is stopped and pressure is applied causing the two parts to be welded together. This results in a forge-quality welded joint produced through process control of the predetermined parameters of time, rotational speed, pressure and temperature.

Some key advantages of the friction welding process over conventional methods include:
o Duplicating part-to-part consistency through controlled process parameters
o The ability to join unlike materials commonly considered not weldable (i.e.: Aluminum, High Carbon Steel, Ceramics, Bronze, Copper, etc.)
o Produces forge-quality welds with little or no diffusion area
o Significantly faster weld cycle times
o Environmentally cleaner and safer
o No consumables are required
o Well suited for a variety of part configurations
o Ease of welding pre-painted or coated components
o Optional process monitoring of weld parameters for statistical process control

With the Coldwater Machine FWS-30, the rotation of the weld head spindle is servo controlled. Precise rotational speeds from 12000 to 23400 rpm can be achieved and forging forces from 335 to 3125 lbf can be accurately applied for maximum weld integrity. These parameters are determined based off of part configuration, size of the part's contact surface area, and the composition of the materials involved. The friction weld head can accept parts with a footprint of up to 30 mm. Because the weld time required for actual friction welding is extremely fast, weld cycle times are easily reduced from minutes to seconds.

Coldwater Machine will configure the FWS-30 as a complete turnkey solution. The system can be designed as a stand alone machine, integrated into a work cell, or be part of an automated processing line. Coldwater Machine will design and manufacture all necessary, stationary or indexing, fixturing and tooling, and integrate, as required, with automated part feeding, or robotics for loading and unloading of parts, as well as complete part gauging. Coldwater Machine can provide weld samples for customer applications using customer provided workpieces, thereby, providing the customer with welded, production quality, test samples for evaluation.