Impact welding equipment developed at Ohio State debuts at Tri-Rivers Career Center

A novel manufacturing method has proven capable of bonding dissimilar metal pairs, including aluminum to steel and titanium to steel, as well as many other advanced alloys. This new welding technology allows for lightweighting by multimaterial design and is an alternative to welding by melting.

Dr. Glenn Daehn, Mars G. Fontana professor of metallurgical engineering with The Ohio State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Anupam Vivek, research scientist with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, invented the manufacturing process, called vaporizing foil actuator welding (VFAW).

In this technique, electrical energy stored in a capacitor bank is released through a switched circuit that contains a thin metal conductor. Driven by a high-energy deposition rate, the conductor vaporizes and produces a high-pressure pulse that drives a flyer into a target at a high rate of speed, whereby an impact weld between dissimilar materials is created.

“This method offers the ability for vehicle designers to use the most appropriate material in specific locations on the vehicle body and provides strong, fastener-free joints between them,” said Daehn. “In order to bring this to broad use, this technology is now being deployed in simple-to-use prototype systems.”

Ohio State recently delivered the first prototype VFAW system to Tri-Rivers Career Center, which offers welding training at its RAMTEC robotics and advanced manufacturing training facility. Ohio State and RAMTEC are working with Ohio-based machine builder Coldwater Machine, a Lincoln Electric Automation company, to deliver equipment based on this emerging technology, made possible by a grant from the Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA).