Friction Welding Applications for the Aircraft & Aerospace Industries

Friction welding has found a solid place in these growing industries for a number of reasons. The demand for larger aircraft means that aero-engines are growing in thrust, temperature, and size. To withstand the high temperatures, critical aircraft and aerospace components are being made with materials such as superalloys, bimetallic, stainless steel and aluminum. These materials, which can be difficult and many times impossible to weld with conventional methods, can be joined with the friction welding process. These higher-temperature materials, along with the large component size, require large amounts of weld energy and load.

In order to meet this increasing demand, MTI designed a 2.000 ton inertia friction welder. This is the largest friction welder in service today. In addition to these large machines, friction welders of all sizes are used in this industry. Aircraft and aerospace components friction welded include compressor rotors, fan shafts, cluster gears, landing gear components, bimetallic rivets and hook bolts, aluminum heat pipes, and cryogenic rocket components. A special machine was designed and built to weld injector posts in the U.S. space shuttle main engine.

Back To Applications