Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FrictionHarmonics (Automated scanner for kissing bond detection in friction stir welded materials)

Teaser

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a material joining technique that is a major breakthrough due to its substantial advantages compared to other techniques for welding aluminum alloys. This has allowed aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing to achieve 60% cost saving and reduce...

Summary

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a material joining technique that is a major breakthrough due to its substantial advantages compared to other techniques for welding aluminum alloys. This has allowed aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing to achieve 60% cost saving and reduce manufacturing time by 73% in aircraft models. This is only a fraction of what could be achieved. Despite its merits, FSW use is still limited due to a certain defect termed “kissing bond”. Kissing bonds reduce the stress-load resilience of FSW materials and are extremely difficult to detect or accurately size using existing NDT methods.

In addition, previous work by the consortium has shown that the fatigue life of FS welds is significantly reduced if kissing bonds exist. Specifically, it was shown that a 0.67 mm kissing bond significantly reduces fatigue life by 91% in comparison to the base metal, with the kissing bond being responsible for crack initiation. Thus, out of fear of low fatigue performance, aerospace and automotive manufacturers cannot leverage FSW to its full potential which translates to manufacturing cost savings of €1.6 billion, fuel savings of €1.9 billion and a reduction of 2 million tons of CO2, during the next 20 years.

Work performed

At M6 project progress, the specifications of the future FrictionHarmonics system are set and the actual software and hardware are under development.

Final results

FrictionHarmonics is a novel inspection system for Friction Stir Welds able to detect kissing bonds of less than 0.3mm in diameter with 100% accuracy.

Our product will increase the confidence of aerospace and automotive manufacturers in Friction Stir Welding (FSW) technology, leading to wide adoption of FSW and to manufacturing cost savings of €1.6 billion over the next 20 years. The weight reduction that FSW offers will lead to fuel savings of €1.9 billion and a reduction of 2 million tons of CO2.

Website & more info

More info: http://fh.iknowhow.com/.