Spin Welding / Friction Welding – Is It For Me?

Spin Welding – or Friction Welding – is a controlled machining process for joining SIMILAR or DISSIMILAR (Bi-Metal) combinations of materials. The ultimate goal of spin welding is to have a 100% weld throughout the full joint interface. This means, given suitable materials, the weld union or interface strength is equal in strength to that of the parent metals. This process yields a high-strength, low-stress, small heat affected zone (HAZ) weld with no porosity, and in most cases, eliminates the need for costly pre-machining or costly tooling.

You may have heard of friction welding or welding interface referred to as spinning, welding, fusing, bonding, marring or union. Friction welding is a well-established process developed in the 1890’s and is widely accepted throughout many different industries and global markets.

Spin Welding Process

A simple explanation defines the friction welding process as rotating one component against a fixed component under pressure. This action efficiently prepares and cleans the weld interface, and generates sufficient low temperature, frictional heat, for at least one of the materials to become plastic at the joint interface. This “Solid State” (non-melting), joining process produces a merging of materials via the heat developed by the induced rubbing motion, and the applied load between the two surfaces.

As long as you have one cylindrical part, Friction Welding can be applied to your application. If you have large quantities to run, Friction Welding can reduce your costs and maintain consistent parts. Spinweld offers you 12 Friction Welding machines to run your production job, and CNC capabilities. And we have over 45 years of experience to back it up.