Friction stir welding, award for excellence in competitiveness
Thanks to the Friction Stir Welding process, there is a lot to gain from FSW in the industrial world. It is ultra-efficient, a determining factor in raising the level of quality to its highest level, unrivalled for working on aluminium, parts with high added value and it allows welding on heterogeneous metals. The question that frequently arises is the investment cost. When it comes to friction stir welding, the price tag completely contradicts the adage that anything valuable is expensive. We will see how FSW solutions are both accessible and easy to amortize.
Investing in friction stir welding, what price to expect?
A relevant FSW solution necessarily implies a custom design, fully optimized for your environment, your constraints, your objectives and, of course, the type of execution in question. Depending on the thickness of the weld, the lengths to be assembled and the size of the elements, the industrial tool to be developed will be different. Moreover, between a subcontracting service, the automation of your production line, or the realization of an articulated arm of friction welding, the price knows important variations.
As you can see, innovative friction welding equipment cannot be duplicated like a standard product, nor can it be mass-produced. This is one of their strengths: designed individually for you, they respond point by point to very well-defined expectations.
Lower costs are the essence of FSW
If there is one thing that is obvious with FSW technology, it is that the material costs of manufacturing are reduced. By using friction stir welding, the cost price of assemblies no longer takes into account certain consumables.
In FSW, no metal is added, no gas is used, no material is wasted, and no energy is consumed in heating up. The cost reduction also includes the processing of the elements to be welded. Sometimes unavoidable in conventional methods, here it is no longer necessary. Finally, a single pass can be efficient where fusion welding would require several. The cost of friction stir welding is thus immediately reduced.
The impact of friction stir welding on production costs
Whether you’re integrating an FSW solution into a manufacturing line or outsourcing to one, this advanced technology will propel your productivity. It transforms the financial costs of a production on several levels:
- Its remarkable speed of execution and productivity: a friction stir welding machine can weld 2 meters per minute, without interruption.
- The optimization it provides: it maintains a constant level of quality throughout the production process.
- Friction stir welding lowers the cost of production: by reducing failures, non-conformities, scrap and by simplifying quality control.
- Space and time management
The use of FSW technology therefore plays a key role in the economic competitiveness of industrial companies.
TRA-C Industrie’s expertise to boost your ROI
A company that uses the friction stir welding process is certainly competitive. Demanding, it must be as well. When you decide to integrate a friction stir welding machine, price alone is not enough, you must also expect a maximum return on investment.
It requires durability and optimization. TRA-C Industrie’s expertise ensures perfect process repeatability on a dedicated machine, optimized according to your specificities and offering an availability rate of over 95%. We have the expertise as well as the human and material resources necessary to study very precisely the implications of the type of assembly you are looking for.
We are able to design and implement the FSW solution that achieves the ideal balance between your weld volume and quality standards. Moreover, we optimize it by programming its predictive maintenance, in particular on the wear of the FSW pin. This gives your industrial equipment the longest life.
