Friction Welding

Spud · Aug 29, 2012

Is it practical to friction weld bicycle (or motorcycle) tube frames? Like joining the seat tube to the top tube ?
I have watched many friction weld videos on YT, and all of them show cyclindrical parts being joined where both parts are inline with each other. There is also friction stir welding where a tool bit rotates and is pushed against the parts to be joined.

Does anyone make friction welded bicycle frames?

sfriedberg · Aug 29, 2012

Non-stir friction welding is possible only for parts that meet in a (rotational) plane, and generally only practical when the plane is perpendicular to the axis of welding thrust. Bicycle frames don't meet those requirements. The contact line is very significantly curved, which rules out the process immediately.

adama · Aug 30, 2012

No there's another way of friction stir welding were there's a "stirring" tool bit that can follow contours around a joint, its a pretty cutting edge process, but would be a very hard thing to do for a tubular frame. Theres videos of it on you tube.

Friction Stir Welding Demonstration - Manufacturing Technology, Inc. - YouTube

sfriedberg · Aug 31, 2012

Adama, that's precisely why I said "Non-stir friction welding". I don't consider the spin-it-and-slam-it type of friction welding to be stir friction welding.

adama · Aug 31, 2012

There's also linear movement friction welding, parts don't spin but move up down, I believe there's also been attempts vibrating the bits together using ultrasonic type vibrations. Both of these would support the joint geometry, but i have no idea if there actualy capable of working on tubes at these sizes.

Spud · Aug 31, 2012

adama said:
No there's another way of friction stir welding were there's a "stirring" tool bit that can follow contours around a joint, its a pretty cutting edge process, but would be a very hard thing to do for a tubular frame. Theres videos of it on you tube.

Friction Stir Welding Demonstration - Manufacturing Technology, Inc. - YouTube

I have a question about that type of friction welding.
The little nub sticking out of the tool body; it penetrates into the workpiece at start, then at the finish when the tool body is retracted, the little nub leaves a hole. So I presume that as the little nub proceeds forward , the workpiece metal plasticises and flows around the nub and behind it?

adama · Aug 31, 2012

Yep you got it, normally run the tool off into either a thicker bit of the part were it does not matter or a sacrificial bit that gets cut off.

Spud · Aug 31, 2012

So I guess the answer to my last question in the OP, is no (no friction welded cycle frames).

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

Friction Welding

Spud

Diamond

sfriedberg

Diamond

adama

Diamond

sfriedberg

Diamond

adama

Diamond

Spud

Diamond

adama

Diamond

Spud

Diamond

Similar threads