Flexible Friction Stir Joining Technology

Technical Report · Thu Jul 23 00:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1210157· OSTI ID:1210157

Feng, Zhili ^[1]; Lim, Yong Chae ^[1]; Mahoney, Murray ^[2]; Sanderson, Samuel ^[2]; Larsen, Steve ^[2]; Steel, Russel ^[2]; Fleck, Dale ^[2]; Fairchild, Doug P ^[3]; Wasson, Andrew J ^[3]; Babb, Jon ^[2]; Higgins, Paul ^[2]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. MegaStir Technologies LLC, Orem, UT (United States)
3. ExxonMobil, Upstream Research Company (URC), Houston, TX (United States)

Reported herein is the final report on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) project with industry cost-share that was jointly carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (ExxonMobil), and MegaStir Technologies (MegaStir). The project was aimed to advance the state of the art of friction stir welding (FSW) technology, a highly energy-efficient solid-state joining process, for field deployable, on-site fabrications of large, complex and thick-sectioned structures of high-performance and high-temperature materials. The technology innovations developed herein attempted to address two fundamental shortcomings of FSW: 1) the inability for on-site welding and 2) the inability to weld thick section steels, both of which have impeded widespread use of FSW in manufacturing. Through this work, major advance has been made toward transforming FSW technology from a “specialty” process to a mainstream materials joining technology to realize its pervasive energy, environmental, and economic benefits across industry.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1210157
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-2015/339; ED2701000; CEED001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English