Chinese axle plant buys friction welder

A single head friction welding machine will be used to weld trailer axles in China and there is provision for upgrading to weld live axles.

ETA Technology, Bangalore, India, has won another order for a 1250kN (125tonf) Friction welding machine for welding of rear axle housings of commercial vehicles.

Arvin Meritor, one of the largest manufacturers of axle housings is the customer.The machine is to be supplied to their new plant in Peoples` Republic of China (Arvin Meritor Vehicle Systems (Wuxi) Co) near Shanghai.

This will be a single head machine and is designed to weld trailer axles and there is provision for upgrading to weld live axles.

Mismatch between spindle axes after friction welding both ends will be within 0.125mm.

Tolerance on length (shoulder to shoulder)within +/-1.0mm with cpk value of 1.67.

There is provision for angular orientation of the spindle within +/-1 deg.The machine can weld axles of diameter up to 150mm with wall thickness of 19mm max.

The machine spindle is driven by an AC spindle motor and braked by line-regenerative braking.

The axial load during welding is applied by a hydraulic cylinder and is controlled by a servovalve through an Industrial PC.Total connected load of the machine is only 175HP.

All important welding parameters like spindle speed, spindle torque, axial thrust and displacement are plotted on-line against time and archived.Weld history of any previous weld can be easily retrieved.

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