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Merci, Philippe. Nous sommes très heureux et fiers de contribuer à cette aventure 😊.

Hi @pauldmann1166, great question! In conventional friction welding, the parts heat up to high temperatures, often glowing red. However, in Friction Stir Welding (FSW), the rotating tool generates sufficient heat to soften the material without reaching the same high temperatures. This allows for a solid-state weld with less visible heat.

Nothing impressive here. It's simply a classic CNC machine to which we've added our FSW welding head. 😉

In this video, there's no specific demonstration of orbital or 3D welding, but there are other applications in which we do perform it. Stay tuned for our future videos, soon we'll be demonstrating orbital welding for a tube.

Thank you for your comment. Each welding method has its strengths: FSW is excellent for high-quality welds and challenging materials (casted, 2xxx and 7xxx aluminum), offering great mechanical integrity and perfectly leakproof seams. Laser welding is faster but comes with higher equipment costs and complexity, and poorer quality.

To weld aluminum, the tool is made out of steel. It is possible to weld steel, but the tool material, cost and lifetime are main challenges. Thus, the process is more mature on softer and lower fusion point materials (copper, aluminum, brass, ...).

@@Stirweld I believe Blue Origin is using Stir Welding for some of it's tank and support structures on the New Glenn rocket where Aluminium is used, but SpaceX's use of Stainless Steel requires a more traditional arc welding process, MiG or TiG, for thier Starship and Superheavy vehicles. Vehicles assembled in orbit from lightweight materials mined in space, may be able to use arc based methods, but I wonder if Stir machinery would use less electrical power, and be less strain on Solar and Battery systems.

q: how did u solve the cooling problem?

@@Patrik6920 Not sure what you mean by cooling problem. If you are asking about cooling the part during/after welding, it is not a problem as the heat is very localized to the weld area. If you are referring to the cooling application for power inverters, it was sealing a cooling chamber on an aluminum housing where the electronics were mounted. The coolant was pumped through a finned chamber where the power devices were mounted to the back side. The housing was die cast with the finned chamber and we FSW a cover over the chamber to seal it.

@@blchandl2 was refering to the tool used to produce the friction..

@@Patrik6920 We were using CPM9V for the weld tools for aluminum. I know other companies using more exotic materials for the weld tool when welding steel.

@@Patrik6920 We used CPM9V for welding aluminum. More exotic materials are used for welding steels. Some machines have the ability to run coolant into the weld tool.

Thank you so much for your support! We'll keep on spreading the word about this great technology. 😊

You need several hundred pounds of down force while moving the bit through the weld path.

@@blchandl2 so about an inch (~2.5cm), then the drill bearings will also be welded.

@@Iowa599 LOL probably. It also takes several hundred pounds of lateral force to move the weld tool through the material. Take notice of the wobble as the bit is driven into the plates at the start of the video.

Oui, nous sommes Français et utilisons l'Anglais pour rendre accessible cette technologie au plus grand nombre. Et effectivement la machine que vous pouvez voir dans la vidéo est une machine d'usinage classique avec notre tête de soudage FSW intégrée qui permet de faire du soudage par friction malaxe, rendant votre CNC totalement hybdride !

Oui j'ai bien reconnu vos CN HAAS... bonnes machines. Est ce que vous travaillez pour des particuliers ? Pour des usagers professionnelles, voulant faire un travail à titre "personnel"...

Nous travaillons exclusivement avec des entreprises, mais si vous avez un centre d'usinage, notre technologie est compatible avec presque toutes les machines du marché. Vous pouvez nous contacter si ça vous intéresse : contact@stirweld.com

You are right, FSW is relevant for large batches or high added-value parts. We welded in partial penetration in this video, just for easy demonstration : feel free to contact us if you want to get full penetration and successful root bending examples. The tool must plunge and rise vertically, so run-in/run-out strips can be needed for edges management on the applications that requires it.

I don't mind it at all. Personal preference for sure

The music doesn’t belong in a video like this. This isn’t a TikTok

Noted for next time. Thanks for your feedback.

I pressed the translate to English button and it still doesn't make sense

For more specific requests, such as your project, I encourage you to contact us via this link: bit.ly/3xeK06O ☺

I know it doesn't look like a weld in the traditional sense, but I can assure you that the plate is indeed welded and meets all quality control standards. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that uses frictional heat generated by a rotating tool to join materials without melting them. I invite you to check our playlist "Everything you need to know about basics principles of FSW" to learn more about the FSW technology: czcams.com/play/PLwJ69okrPX7A9cc1N8O3IAMVGTOSWZLQa.html I also invite you to visit our facilities to see the process in action and check the welding quality. 😊

It's normal; Friction Stir Welding doesn't reach the material's melting point. It's a "cold" welding process. The temperature initiated by the rotating FSW tool is high enough to soften the aluminum but not make it liquid, allowing the material to be joined together without melting. 😉

Thank you for all your kind remarks and comments. At 1:09, the video you see is not modified at all; we actually weld at a speed of 4 mpm. Although the cross section still presents a minor defect, a bending test confirms that the bond is correct. We are performing this lap weld between two 2mm thick plates. A mobile clamping can be relevant even when welding common materials. It mostly depends above all on the configuration of the parts to be welded. The load applied by the FSW tool cannot hold the parts together as the material is really soft in the weld. Please contact us to further discuss 😉

Hello, the little holes you see before welding are called tack-welding. It's done with the tip of the FSW tool and helps hold the cover in place for friction stir welding. Once the weld is complete, there's no more sign of these holes in the material!

Thanks for the answer

Great question! Parts designed in dissimilar materials and welded using FSW can be protected with a coating such as paint to isolate from corrosion, and by controlling environmental factors to minimize corrosive interactions.

There's still time! We would love to see you there.

Trying new materials with our prototyping team! 😊

Thank you for your interest in friction stir welding! To get the answer to your question, please contact our team of experts at contact@stirweld.com 😊

That's a good question. 😊 In this specific case, we are dealing with a lap weld configuration. The aluminum is not only marked, but joined between the two superimposed plates. We can offer you a very accessible solution to start FSW at home thanks to our friction stir welding head for CNC machines, so don't hesitate to contact us here: stirweld.com/en/contact-us/

Yeah, the video makes no sense.Why they won't show two pieces joined together. But then they comment back and ask you to buy one of their machines.

You can see all our welded parts in our other, more usercase-oriented videos on our channel. You'll always see the parts before, during, and after welding. For example, for the tailor welded blanks which appears at 01:03, I recommend this video: czcams.com/video/ZIWBqh9puOI/video.html which includes a weld cut and bend test.

Was gonna say this myself.

FSW provides a seamless turnkey solution for copper welding, enhancing thermal management and offering a significant competitive advantage!

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it. For more info or to get in touch, visit our website : stirweld.com/contact/ 😊

Hello, thank you for your interest. You can contact us here using the form: stirweld.com/en/contact-us/ and we'll get back to you as soon as possible! 😊 You can also check out our other videos about aerospace applications.