Friction Welding
American Friction Welding (AFW) is a bi-metallic friction welder of dissimilar metals and near-net-shape parts. The company uses direct-drive rotary friction welding to deliver high precision, full-strength penetration bonds in the most demanding applications and industries. Dramatic cost savings result by reducing the amount of working material, machining, and surface finishing needed to produce finished metal components.
Rotary friction and inertia welding are a solid-state process joining two metal objects by applying rotational motion and forging pressure to the objects. High temperatures generated by friction, transform the point of contact into a plasticized state. This area is known as the weld interface. The pressure is applied to forge a metallic bond between the atoms of the objects. The overall molecular integrity of the original objects remains intact due to the narrow heat-affected zone of this technology. Friction welding provides a complete cross-sectional bond without using fluxes or filler metal. Spin welding and linear friction welding cycle time vary by metal type, shape, and weight.
Automated friction welding is used to fuse aluminum alloy, brass, bronze, copper, nickel, silver, steel alloy, carbon steel, stainless steel, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, and many other metal alloys. One object spins at a controlled rotating speed while the other is held stationary. Friction heats the dissimilar material where they contact. It is successful in bonding two different metals where conventional means may not work. It provides a high speed, lower-cost solution to join motor shafts, axle shafts, prop shafts, gear to shaft, disc to shaft, solid round to solid round, pipe to pipe, solid round to pipe, and many other dissimilar shapes. The joining process serves as an alternative method to brazing, electron beam, explosive, and butt welding.
A climate controlled facility delivers another level of consistency to our manufacturing process. Repeatable bonding relies on controlled conditions, which includes its environment. All working materials acclimate to operating ambient temperature before production and per approved WPS.
Our full-time maintenance team manages over $200,000 of spare manufacturing equipment parts. They provide preventive and predictive maintenance, minimizing unscheduled downtime and increasing on-time delivery of your product.
AFW’s on-site toolroom is staffed full-time and is responsible for all tooling used at our facility, which provides more control and accuracy over our manufacturing process. The immediate response to any tooling issues that may arise reduces production downtime and helps to ensure on-time delivery.
