Richard.
Member
- Messages
- 18,344
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
I’ve seen it lots of times and it’s a fascinating process but with many limitations.
It’s confined to butt joints only and obviously automation.
It will only do straight lines and if you step away from softer materials like aluminium, copper etc it’s very limiting on the thickness it can join.
Steel joints are very hard on the extremely expensive tooling and your limited to travel length.
However it’s quick when you consider full pen joints are taken care of in a single pass.
The finish is superb with zero reinforcement and zero defects and it doesn’t get hot enough to create any meaningful HAZ because you never take the parent into it’s full fluid state
Obviously systems cost in to the£££££££ but there is savings to be made on the fact your joining without filler materials and gas.
It’s confined to butt joints only and obviously automation.
It will only do straight lines and if you step away from softer materials like aluminium, copper etc it’s very limiting on the thickness it can join.
Steel joints are very hard on the extremely expensive tooling and your limited to travel length.
However it’s quick when you consider full pen joints are taken care of in a single pass.
The finish is superb with zero reinforcement and zero defects and it doesn’t get hot enough to create any meaningful HAZ because you never take the parent into it’s full fluid state
Obviously systems cost in to the£££££££ but there is savings to be made on the fact your joining without filler materials and gas.
