3 July 2017

Advantages and disadvantages of friction welding

Friction welding works on the basic principle of friction is used to generate heat at the interference surface this heat is used to join two workpieces by applying external pressure at the surface of the workpiece. The joint is created in this welding is due to thermomechanical treatment. The main advantage of friction welding is the ease with which the joining can take place. Now, let us have a deep insight into the pros and cons of friction welding. 


Advantages of friction welding :

  • Oxides and contaminants present would easily be removed during the initial rubbing so that edge cleaning is not a problem.
  • Since the joining takes place by diffusion rather than by actual melting, even dissimilar metals can be joined. 
  • The heat generated is small and below the melting temperature, there will be no distortion and warping.
  • The quality of weld achieved is very high.
  • High welding speed.
  • Economical in other welding operation.
  • No skilled operator is required to work on the friction welding machine since it is completely automatic in operation.
  • No possibility of porosity and slag inclusion.
  • It is an environmentally friendly process since there is no fumes, gases or smoke is generated.
  • No flux, filler metal or gas is required to perform this process.
  • No special power supply is required.
  • Wide variety of metal can be weld by this process.

Disadvantages of friction welding : 

  • This process used for only round bars of the same cross-section. 
  • Limited to angular and flat butt joints. 
  • Set-up cost is very high. 
  • Preparation of workpiece is difficult. 
  • Non-forgeable materiel can not be weld.
  • It can only be used for smaller parts of machines, big parts are not compatible with it.