Technical Paper
Robotic Friction Stir Welding
2007-09-17
2007-01-3811
In the aircraft industry, joining technologies get more and more important, because they represent a high expense factor when components have to be assembled. Riveting is the current state-of-the-art joining method due to its very safe and robust application. However it is a time and weight consuming technology as it requires overlapping sections that have to be drilled in order to place the rivets in up to three rows. Thus, the aircraft industry currently evaluates several welding technologies to reduce production and maintenance cost as well as the weight of aircrafts for longer range and higher efficiency. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) represents an innovative joining technology that allows the welding of all aluminium alloys of interest with excellent seam properties and with thicknesses from 0.3 mm up to 50 mm and more. The substitution of automated riveting by FSW can lead to a significant reduction of process time and a cost reduction of up to 20 %.
