Lateral position detection and control for friction stir systems

Patent · Tue Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2010

OSTI ID:1011390

Fleming, Paul ^[1]; Lammlein, David ^[2]; Cook, George E ^[3]; Wilkes, Don Mitchell ^[4]; Strauss, Alvin M ^[4]; Delapp, David ^[5]; Hartman, Daniel A ^[6]

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1. Boulder, CO
2. Houston, TX
3. Brentwood, TN
4. Nashville, TN
5. Ashland City, TN
6. Santa Fe, NM

A friction stir system for processing at least a first workpiece includes a spindle actuator coupled to a rotary tool comprising a rotating member for contacting and processing the first workpiece. A detection system is provided for obtaining information related to a lateral alignment of the rotating member. The detection system comprises at least one sensor for measuring a force experienced by the rotary tool or a parameter related to the force experienced by the rotary tool during processing, wherein the sensor provides sensor signals. A signal processing system is coupled to receive and analyze the sensor signals and determine a lateral alignment of the rotating member relative to a selected lateral position, a selected path, or a direction to decrease a lateral distance relative to the selected lateral position or selected path. In one embodiment, the friction stir system can be embodied as a closed loop tracking system, such as a robot-based tracked friction stir welding (FSW) or friction stir processing (FSP) system.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• Assignee: ALO
• Patent Number(s): 7,850,057
• Application Number: 12/703,811
• OSTI ID: 1011390
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English