Welding Machines Provide Extensive Monitoring Features

PTG Heavy Industry’s Powerstir Friction Stir Welding (FSW) machines are designed to perform high-quality welding with low distortion and high joint strength on aluminum, magnesium, copper, lead and zinc. Models range from small research machines to specialist models for ellipsoidal and spherical contour welding, and static gantry and moving heavy gantry models for rail, shipbuilding and aerospace. A range of tooling is available for various materials and process types.

Full CNC process control is provided on each FSW machine, comprising a touchscreen interface, data acquisition and weld monitoring systems. The operator can select the type of control to perform the weld (position, force or height control). Optional camera-fed visual monitoring provides safe viewing of the weld production environment. Since continual load monitoring is a key aspect of friction stir welding, load cells measure and maintain a force as defined in the “force” parameter for the whole welding process. Other control features monitor weld temperature and sense relative position of the tool and workpiece.All process data is stored for archival and analysis.

Optional argon shielding protects the welding area from atmospheric gases to create an inert gas atmosphere when working with parent materials that produce high-temperature welds, such as steel and titanium. Other options include machine fixtures such as side clamps, mandrels and supports.