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Rotary Friction Welding Machine | CNC Controlled or Hydraulic Friction Welding Process
LPR Global offers rotary friction welding machines designed and built a leading manufacturer of friction welding solutions in Korea who holds multiple patents on magnesium alloy welding technology and on mechanical structures, such as the friction welding apparatus, hydraulic chucks, and power steering main shaft mechanics.
Two types of rotary friction welding machine lines are specialized: CNC rotary friction welding machines or hydraulic friction welding machines, depending on clients’ friction welding application and requirements. Our rotary friction welding machines can be fully automated, including automatic loading and unloading system with a robot arm, and poka-yoke mistake proofing capabilities by measuring and monitoring the friction welded tube lengths during the process against set lengths in the welding parameter, which is the ideal friction welding solution for mass production factories.
Rotary friction welding machine model 8SF featuring 8 ton forging force for single sided friction welding is the preferred choice for camshaft manufacturers in the automotive industry; model 100SF is widely used by track roller manufacturers in the heavy industrial equipment industry; model CNC 12DF is a favorite among propeller and drive shaft manufacturers for high precision and short cycle time. Please see our product line in the brochure, or view the Hydraulic Friction Welding Machines and the CNC Friction Welding Machines on this page. We offer customized options for various clients’ specific needs.
Rotary Friction Welding Applicable Products
Automotive Components
Torque converters, electric battery connectors, camshafts, propeller shafts, intermediate shafts, drive shafts, universal joints, constant velocity joints, shock absorber rods, push rods, turbo chargers, engine valves, engine pistons, compressor pistons, rear axle shafts, brake pistons, yoke shafts, rear axle housings, torque rods, and motor shafts
Friction Welding Machine for Automotive Parts
Friction Welding Machine for Torque Converters
Construction Machine Components
Hydraulic piston rods, hydraulic pump pistons, track roller bushings, and Track rollers
Electric Components
Cable connectors, battery cables, motor shafts
Machinery Components and Structural Components
Print rollers, T-shaped bars for LNG gravity based structures, ballscrews, gear shafts, drill pipes, shower heads, aluminum blanks for fracturing system balls, steel balls, bolts, valve bodies and flanges
Friction Welding Combinations
Friction welding solves design challenges because friction heat creates a plastic zone between two work pieces where they can be forged together under external force. The complete interface is welded simultaneously, which creates no offset from thermally induced stresses and provides consistent, repeatable quality because the process is completely machine-controlled.
Welding Interface and Design
Bar + Bar
Bar + Bar
Optimal shape in the welding zone considering the heat balance
Pipe + Bar
Pipe + Bar
Joining method that best conceals or removes flash
Pipe + Pipe
Pipe + Plate
Bar and Plate
Any forgeable material can be friction welded; this includes a wide range of metals, non-metals, and formed products such as castings or powder-metal parts. Many automotive part manufacturers reduce their manufacturing costs by replacing forged parts with sintered or powder metal pressed parts, in which case friction welding technology is used to weld partly forged material and powder pressed material together.
Rotary Friction Welding Process | Advantages
Dissimilar metals can be joined
- Steel + Stainless steel
- Steel + Powder metal
- Cu, Al + Stainless steel
Non ferrous metal can be joined
- Al + Cu
- Al + Al or Cu + Cu
Reduces material cost & forging cost
- Substitution of non-critical part to a less costly material by friction welding.
- Full forging to partial forging and friction welded components
Reduction in parts weight
- Substitution of forged bars with tubes
Improvement in manufacturing process
- Gundrilling can be replaced with friction welding pipes to bars.
Leak inspection is no longer required
- Enhanced air tightness at the joining section
Hydraulic Friction Welding Machines
Hydraulic Rotary Friction Welding Machines
Welding cycle graphics (Touch screen PC)
Improve Productivity
- Shortened welding cycle time and increased efficiency
- Simple and easy operation with very little training required
- Automated welding allows for redeployment of skilled labor
- Minimal preparation required on welding materials
- Low energy consumption
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CNC Friction Welding Machines | Precise Angle Control
CNC Friction Welding Machines
Welding cycle graphics (Touch screen PC)
Improve Productivity
- Reduce cycle time due to precisely controlled speed using servo motors
- Increase operational stability by reducing fluctuations in oil temperature
- Reduce the setup time by using a servo that automatically adjusts to the length of the material
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CNC SF (Single Spindle)
CNC DF (Double Spindle)
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Rotary Friction Welding Machine Options
Process Monitoring
- Displays important parameters
- Data from every weld is stored and easily retrieved
Information Displayed
- Machine status and diagnostics
- Welding parameter database
- Record of each welding cycle
- Alarm conditions
Flash Removal
Turning
- Applicable to rotary machines only (1-and 2-axis NC)
Shearing
- I.D. or O.D. flash can be sheared off directly
- Applicable to non-rotary machines only
Angle Control
- Mechanically or electronically controlled angles on both ends of the product after welding when certain angles are required for the application such as propeller shafts
Auto Stopper
- Reduce cycle time via precisely controlled speed using servo motors
Rotary Friction Welding Machine Video
Business Case: Friction Welding for Oil & Gas Ball Drop System Supplier for Fracturing Ball Manufacturing
A Texas-based global oil & gas ball fracturing system manufacturer for oil and gas wells found single headed rotary friction welding machine model 50SF as an answer to its need to weld 2024-T351 aluminum blanks with a wide range of lengths up to a maximum of 5,000 ㎟ welding area. Their aluminum balls that used to be machined from solid blanks are now made by friction welding two aluminum blanks with hollow space inside, and then machined for use as fracturing balls in wells.
This client provides drilling pipe solutions and oil fracturing system for technically challenging applications in open wells in the oil and gas industry. When we worked with this oil fracturing system manufacturer, they were familiar with the advantages of friction welding over other conventional welding methods, as well as the friction welding technology, and wanted to replace their existing manufacturing method with friction welding technology.
Being suggested model 50SF, a hydraulic single headed friction welding head machine, they sent us their aluminum blank samples for test welding which were sent back for quality tests post friction welding. The client conducted their own testing on the welded samples for any mismatch of axis measurements at weld, tensile strengths, and bend tests. After reviewing the test results, they visited our manufacturing site in Korea and signed off to have their own Model 50SF manufactured because it has the capability to handle wider range of blank lengths than competitors and to reduce the loss of aluminum blanks with more precise control.
Rotary friction welding machine model 50SF has a welding precision of 0.5mm length between datum faces, and 0.15mm mismatch of axes at weld. This friction welding machine is equipped with robust 2-axis in-machine flash removal; welding process is shortened this way instead of moving the welding piece to a flash removal station. In addition it is equipped with 2 jaw chuck at the fixed axis and spindle head. Our welding operating system has a touch panel with industrial PC where all the operating information is communicated with the PLC and saved into the PC; it also allows engineers to easily make changes in the welding parameters for customization. Operator can view the real-time display of friction pressure, forged pressure, RPM, and part length value.
All of our rotary friction welding machines are customized to each client’s welding needs. Please contact us for your own friction welding machine specification.
Business Case: Friction Welding for Automotive Shock Absorber Manufacturer
A global-sized shock absorber rod manufacturer selected our CNC double headed rotary friction welding machine for their steel double welded shock absorber rod production plant when they needed to increase their production size with reduced cycle time and reduced material costs to meet their growing client base and orders.
This client was looking to add a fully automated rotary friction welding line with an automatic loading and unloading function, flash removal feature, and poka-yoke capabilities post welding at its mass production plant in Europe. Their limited floor space at the plant allowed only a well-integrated automatic friction welding line; the line designer had to be equipped with not only the knowledge about the friction welding technology but also a deep understanding of the client’s manufacturing process at the plant, in the automotive industry.
Our friction welding solution for this client was a CNC controlled double sided rotary friction welding machine that welds two end stems to a S45C steel tube at each end simultaneously at maximum 12 tons of forging force. Maximum weldable area was 800㎟ with tube thickness range of 1-6mm. Shearing unit was attached to the line to allow automatic shearing of the flash post welding, and cycle time was kept at maximum 12 seconds. The welding system was designed to check and monitor the friction force, forge force, total upset amount, main axis RPM, length of the weld, and the friction time for quality control of the welded joint from start to finish. The break for the spindle was designed to stop within 0.5 seconds along with other hydraulic parts to precisely control the weld time, rotation speed, and forge force.
The client’s need for the automatic integrated line provided us with the opportunity to demonstrate our core strength: rich experience and understanding about the automotive industry. From our total clientele base, over 75% are from the automotive industry. Our line design was submitted and approved within a short period of time and the client knew that their friction welding line was being built by a team familiar with automotive manufacturing processes. This client will be equipping the plant with more of these machines to continue supporting their production capacity growth.
We build fully automated friction welding lines for clients’ specific needs.
Business Case: Single Headed Friction Welding Machine for T-bars
Welding T-bars for LNG Gravity Based Structures
HYD 15SF, a horizontal type single headed hydraulic friction welding machine was designed and manufactured for LNG producer wishing to manufacture T-bars required for structural support of LNG gravity based structures. To create a high strength bond between reinforcement bars (rebars) and end plates to create T-bars that can withstand bending force, and the weight of concrete, our client looked into friction welding to join the two parts.
HYD 15SF was designed to friction weld EN 10025-2 grade G450J0 end plates to S450J0 reinforcement bars with up to maximum weld area of 1000mm² with maximum welding force of 15 ton under total cycle time of 40 seconds with automatic loading and unloading.
Our recent T-bar manufacturer’s requirement was to be able to weld reinforcement bars between diameter of 15mm-32mm to end plates of various sizes (see specification below). The welded T-bars had specific welding quality requirements that included perpendicularity of 3˚, and eccentricity tolerance of 3mm. Welding joint had to maintain its connection at design temperature as low as -60˚C.
Tensile test was required in regular temperature condition, and at low temperature -60˚C. It required the weldments to be tested without flash removal, and fracture had to be observed in the reinforcement bar parent material at minimum 1 bar diameter away from its welded connection. (e.g. 32mm diameter rebar requires fracture to be seen at a minimum 32mm above the welded connection). No partial or total fracture in the T-plate or in the welded connection was allowed.
Bending test required the specimens to be bent without fracture at a 90˚ angle with minor tearing accepted. Hardness of HV5 or 375 was required using a Vickers hardness survey of the weldment’s
longitudinal section.
Material Specification
End plates dimensions: Width 30mm-110mm / Length 60mm to 110mm / Thickness 14mm to 25mm
Reinforcement bars: Diameter 15mm- 32mm.
Business Case: Rotary Friction Welding Machine for Torque Converters
Welding Torque Converters for Automotive Powertrain
A CNC controlled friction welding machine CNC 10SFV was developed for our global automotive tier 1 client focusing in powertrain, and thermal systems. CNC 10SFV model friction welds torque converter’s hub and housing vertically.
This vertical rotary friction welding machine maintains cycle time of 36 seconds and a precision level of TIR 0.3mm with fully automated welding process including automatic loading and unloading function and a flash removal unit. This machine friction welds and instantly forges using the generated heat for maximum welding area of 600㎟ and maximum forge force of 10 tons based on the materials and dimension of the torque converters.
Tooling including the jigs are also designed and manufactured in-house to allow one model of friction welding machine for welding different models of torque converters.
Our friction welding machines can be used to friction weld other Powertrain components including:
- Driveshafts
- Propeller Shafts
- Intermediate Shafts
- Constant Velocity Joints
