Solid Phase Welding Process

 This is a group of processes in which coalescence is produced at temperatures essentially

below the melting point of the base metals being joined.
 No filler metal is generally used in these processes; pressure is however used in some
cases.
 The commonly used solid phase welding processes include friction and forge welding.

FRICTION WELDING
 In this process one of the work-pieces is rotated, the other remaining stationary.
 Whilst rotation is taking place the work-pieces are brought together under pressure so that
heat is generated at the metal interface (Fig. 9.1).
 The conversion of mechanical energy convert into heat by means of friction.
 This conversion occurs only in the weld area so that very little heat energy is wasted.

 As relative rotation between the work-pieces takes place under pressure, heat due to dry
friction is generated and a stage is reached where pressure welding can occur.
 In the following stage heat is generated by mechanical deformation of the metal rather than
by dry fiction, and the increase heat energy produced is sufficient to, reduce the metal to a
plastics state.
 When sufficient heating has occurred, the relative rotation of the parts is stopped rapidly
and the end load is increased.
 A 'flash' or collar of metal is formed due to extrusion from the interface as a joint is
produced.
 The welding machine usually resembles a lathe, → capable to control the rotational speed,
the axial pressure and the time of contact accurately.
 In friction welding no melting takes place.
Advantage
 Friction welding can be used for materials up to several centimeters in diameter and the
relatively low welding temperature involved results in high-quality joints.
 A further advantage of the process is that dissimilar materials can be successfully joined.
 Thus carbon steel can be satisfactorily welded to titanium, aluminum and zirconium as well
as to high-speed steel.
 A type of brazing process in which a disc of the brazing alloy is interposed between the two
metals to be joined is also under development.
Disadvantages
 The main drawback in applying this process is that at least one of the components being
joined must be round in cross-section.
 The need to rotate one member of the joint can also pose a problem, particularly when long
lengths of pieces are to be joined together.
 Moreover, there is actually only one type of joint that can be welded on a friction welder
and this is a butt joint.
 Even with these limitations the friction welder has three distinct advantages of speed,
accuracy and economy and is quite widely used as a production process.

FORGE WELDING
 This process is regarded as the oldest of all welding operations and has been used by the
blacksmiths for well over 2000 years.
 It consists of heating the surfaces to be joined placing these surfaces in contact and
hammering them together to form a weld.
 The surfaces are heated below the melting point, so that they are in a plastic stale.
 The process depends on the fact that the melting point of iron oxide is lower than that of
iron
 When the blacksmith makes the weld he heats the pieces of iron until he sees them sweat
on the surface i.e. until the surface oxides melt, and then hammers them together, squeezing
out the molten oxide layers more or less completely.
 During the industrial revolution, i.e. before the modern welding processes were invented,
forge welding was applied on a wide scale, it was mechanized and equipment was built to
enable large components to be joined.
 ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE WELDING
 Widely known as resistance welding
 The electric resistance produces heat at the junction of the parts to be welded and finally
pressure is applied. With such a method of heating the temperature can be strictly
controlled → suitable for mass production.
 Widly used for the joining of wire, strip, pipe etc. Resistance welding is particularly suitable
for joining light-gauge materials which are generally less successfully joined by fusion
welding.
 The resistance welding process differ, from all those previously mentioned in that filler
metal is rarely used and fluxes are not, employed.
 Three factors are involved in making a resistance weld. They are:
(i) the amount of current that passes through the work,
(ii) the pressure that the electrodes transfer to the work and
(iii) the time the current flows through the work
 Electrical resistance welding is more widely used than any other pressure welding process
and comprises spot, seam, butt and flash welding operations.
 SPOT WELDING
 A spot welder is one of the most common pieces of welding equipment.
 It is characterized by low cost, speed and dependability making it a common electrical
resistance welding process.
 The electrodes on a spot welder are usually made of high conductivity hard copper. The
parts to be joined overlap and arc firmly gripped between the electrodes
 A high current at a low voltage is passed through the parent metals between the electrodes.
Heat is generated at the interface by the resistance offered to the current flow.
 A spot or slug of metal is melted and bridges the gap at the interface. This method is used
mainly for the joining of sheets and plates, and in particular, in the production of temporary
joints.

SEAM WELDING
 Seam welding is similar in principle to spot welding, but produces a continuous weld by
employing wheels as electrodes.
 The parts to be joined are passed between the rotating wheels and heated to a state of
plasticity by the current. The pressure applied by the wheels is [Link] produce a
continuous weld.
 A serious difficulty encountered in seam welding is warping of the material being joined.
Several methods are used to reduce such warpage. On long seams, for example, the parts
are first joined by tacking them together with a series of short seam welds.
 The work is then passed between the electrode again and the missed portions are welded. A
more common method of reducing warpage is to employ water-cooling jets immediately
before and after the electrodes.
 Seam welding machines are similar in basic construction to spot welding machines, except
that the electrodes are mechanically driven rotating discs.
 RESISTANCE BUTT WELDING
 This process is also known as upset welding or simply butt welding.
 It is usually used to join lengths of rod and wire.
 The ends are pressed together and an electric current passed through the work so that the
ends are heated to a plastic state due to the higher electrical resistance existing at the point
of contact.
 The pressure is then applied to form a weld.
 The best results are generally obtained in butt welding if the two pieces are equal in cross-
sectional area and of equal specific resistance.
 If they are equal in specific resistance but not in cross-sectional area the part having larger
area should project from the clamping die farther than the other part.
 On the other hand, if they are of unequal specific resistance the part with the lesser resistance
should project farther from the die than the other.
 The surfaces to be joined must be clean parallel and reasonably smooth, otherwise local
overheating may occur in the region of any projections.
 Butt-welding Machines are basically similar to those used in flash welding, and differ
mainly in the methods used to produce motion during welding
 Explosion Welding
 Explosion welding (EXW) is a pressure-welding process.
 The workpieces usually start out cold but heat significantly and extremely rapidly locally at
their faying surfaces during the production of the actual weld.
 The controlled detonation of a properly placed and shaped explosive charge causes the
properly aligned workpieces to come together extremely rapidly at a low contact angle.
 When this occurs, air between the workpieces is squeezed out at supersonic velocities.
 The resulting jet cleans the surfaces of oxides and causes very localized but rapid heating
to high temperatures.
 Additional heating occurs as the result of high-strain- rate deformation in the immediate
vicinity of the impacting pieces.

 The weld bond-line of explosion welds is typically very distorted locally, as shown in
Figure, reflecting severe but highly localized plastic deformation.
 Very heavy-section parts can be welded together, and over large surface areas, if required.
 Producing such welds would be virtually impossible by other means.
 Explosion welding is employed in the production of heavy-clad thick plates for use where
heat, oxidation, corrosion, or wear resistance is needed, examples being AISI 304 clad to
mild steel, and commercially pure titanium clad to mild steel.
 Explosion welding also has special value for producing transition joints for subsequent use
in fusion welding two incompatible metals or alloys that cannot be directly welded.
 In such situations, explosion-welded combinations of two metals that are compatible with
each substrate (i.e., one layer in the clad pair to one substrate, the other layer to the other
substrate) make up the transition piece, and the transition piece is then welded by
conventional means (usually using a fusion process) to each substrate.
 The transition piece acts as a bridging member.
 Diffusion Welding
 Diffusion welding (DFW) is a solid-state welding process that produces a weld by the
application of pressure at elevated temperature with no macroscopic deformation or relative
motion of the workpieces.
 A filler metal may or may not be inserted between the faying surfaces to facilitate weld
formation by either helping to achieve more points or areas of intimate contact between
substrates (through plastic accommodation), or speeding diffusion by providing a faster
diffusing atomic species.

 Diffusion welding offers some very special and often unique advantages:
1) Metals as well as ceramics can be joined directly to form a completely solidstate weld;
2) A filler can be used to provide more contact for bond formation and/or promote more
rapid diffusion by providing a faster diffusing species
3) Dissimilar materials including metal-to-ceramic can be joined directly or with the aid
of a compatible filler or intermediate;
4) Large areas can be bonded or welded, provided uniform intimate contact can be obtained
and sustained; and
5) There will be no heat-affected zone as such, since the entire assembly in which the
diffusion weld is being made is virtually always heated to the same temperature.

 Among the key parameters of the process (temperature, time and pressure) temperature is
by far the most important, provided there is enough pressure to cause contact between joint
elements.
 The reason temperature is so important is that diffusion occurs by an Arrhenius relationship,
that is, exponentially with temperature:
 Time is important because diffusion takes time to occur, since for atoms to jump from site
to site takes time.
 Pressure is important from several standpoints.
 Initially, pressure is absolutely critical to establish point-to-point contact across which
diffusion can occur; the higher the pressure, the more points and area of contact, so the more
diffusion can occur for any particular temperature.
 Later in the process, pressure can help speed diffusion welding by being high enough to
cause creep and/or sufficient plastic deformation that dynamic recrystallization occurs; the
greater the deformation, the lower the recrystallization temperature.