New Developments for Linear Friction Welding in Aerostructures

Linear friction welding is a technology known for the high mechanical performance of welding zone. The process already produces aerospace parts (ie: blisk application) and can be used as well for parts welding and material addition manufacturing. Recently new applications for local material addition  on titanium extruded parts were developed to replace full machining process route and earn significant costs on material and machining time. This new combination of processes proved its cost efficiency as far as we can avoid intermediary machining operation between extrusion and linear friction welding. Part of this process route development is also to harness linear friction welding as well as it can be done with machined parts. This presentation will deal with requirements for linear friction welding in this process route and will give an overview of works done to validate welding quality for use in aerospace industry.