I got interested in welding tech when I watched “How rockets are made” by Destin Sandlin. In this video, Destin presents a tour of United Launch Alliance‘s rocket factory in Decatur, Alabama, together with ULA’s CEO, Tory Bruno. If you are at all interested in either aerospace, rockets, or manufacturing, I highly recommend watching Destin’s video:
As I watched the video, I was particularly fascinated by the various welding technologies that ULA uses for joining rocket parts. Obviously, given how high-strength and lightweight everything for space flight has to be, these welding technologies are not what you can buy in your local hardware store. Prompted by watching Destin’s video, I got curious about welding technologies and innovations more generally.
First, let me explain to you how I went about my welding discovery endeavor.
How I searched for welding technologies and innovations
I am not a mechanical engineer nor a materials scientist. So I simply searched for ‘welding OR welded’ in Mergeflow, and restricted my results to the past three years. Then, I narrowed down on three data sets:
Science Publications
There were more than 8,200 science publications relevant to my search over the past three years. In order to zoom in on what are probably the most interesting or cutting edge ones, I used Mergeflow’s ‘Emerging Technologies’ tags. These emerging technology tags are generated by an algorithm that matches the contents of publications against semantic models of ca. 200 emerging technologies.
See all ’emerging technologies’ available in Mergeflow
For my search, the tag cloud looked like this:
Technology Blogs
Unlike scientific publications, technology blogs are written with a more general audience in mind. This makes them a great resource for discovering cutting edge technologies and innovations. Particularly if you have no background or training in a field (= me in this case). Similarly to the Scientific Publications data set, I used Mergeflow’s ‘Emerging Technologies’ tags to zoom in.
Research Projects
For one of its data sets, Mergeflow tracks research projects that are funded by various public R&D funding programs. One such funding program that we track is SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research). Usually, SBIR grants are awarded to small or medium-size companies that are often not widely known (yet). Therefore, scanning these research projects is a great way to detect under-the-radar companies that do innovative work. For my purposes here, I restricted results to SBIR grants related to welding from the past year. You can access the results from Mergeflow by clicking here.
Please note that my findings are certainly neither representative nor exhaustive. They are merely “food for thought”. In addition, somebody with a technical background in the field might have searched differently. So if you have come up with a new welding technology that is not on my list, this is my bad, not yours.
This article is about welding technologies. But some of the technologies I found were actually not welding, but other technologies from related yet different fields. On the top of the list of such alternative technologies is additive manufacturing.
Since my interest was sparked by welding technologies in aerospace, I will start with a finding there. Then I will move out into other areas.
1. Additive manufacturing to make combustion chambers for small rockets
What it is
This project aims to combine two additive manufacturing methods, selective laser melting and magnetic pulse welding. The purpose is to make bimetallic combustion chambers for small NASA launch vehicles (a.k.a. rockets).
Why it matters
This additive manufacturing method is claimed to be up to 50% cheaper and a lot faster than traditional methods. Traditionally, combustion chamber parts are first cast and then welded together.
Reference details
Additively manufactured bimetallic combustion chambers for small launch vehicles. SBIR grant awarded to Cornerstone Research Group and ASRC.
2. Using new welding technologies with conventional CNC machines
What it is
The goal of this project is to further develop a new friction stir welding system. Eventually the idea is to retrofit the system onto commercially available standard CNC machines.
Why it matters
Being able to retrofit the new welding system onto existing CNC machines makes the whole system more scalable and widely available.
Reference details
Robotic bonding system. SBIR grant awarded to Physical Optics Corporation.
3. Machine learning to improve welding sequences
What it is
This research proposes using a type of machine learning, reinforcement learning, for welding sequence optimization. In reinforcement learning, the goal is to get an algorithm to master a task. Applied to welding sequence optimization, the goal for the algorithm could be “avoid structural deformation of the workpiece”, for example.
Why it matters
Welding sequence optimization is important in order to minimize structural deformation of the workpiece. But traditional welding sequence optimization algorithms take more than a week to complete. The research proposed here aims to substantially speed up this process. This is essential to early-stage prototyping, for example.
Reference details
Incorporating domain knowledge into reinforcement learning to expedite welding sequence optimization. Research paper.
4. Solar concentrator units that can power welding
What it is
Solar concentrators generate power by using mirrors that bundle sunlight onto a receiver. The idea behind this project is to develop solar concentrators for manufacturing and materials processing, including welding.
Why it matters
Welding is power intensive, and requires power grid access. Solar concentrators enable communities without access to power grids to do manufacturing, including welding.
Reference details
Solar concentrator unit for low-cost metal additive manufacturing. SBIR grant awarded to Blueshift.
5. Joining metals without welding
What it is
This research proposes an electro-chemical etching process called “nanoscale sculpturing” as an alternative to welding and gluing. This process can connect metals with each other, but also metals with polymers.
Why it matters
Since the proposed process works at room temperature, it does not destroy already treated and painted surfaces as welding does. This could make the process particularly well-suited to attach interiors to ships or cars, for example.
Reference details
Joining metals without welding. Making metal surfaces strong, resistant, and multifunctional by nanoscale-sculpturing. Research conducted at the Institute for Materials Science, Kiel University, and Phi-Stone AG.
6. Using nanoparticles to weld previously unweldable aluminum
What it is
Aluminum alloy 7075 (AA 7075) is very strong and lightweight. But so far it could not be welded. This is because during welding, its constituent materials — aluminum, zinc, copper, and magnesium — create an uneven flow. This results in cracks. Now, in order to solve this issue, a research group at UCLA infused titanium carbide nanoparticles into AA 7075 welding wires.
Why it matters
This new welding process could make AA 7075 available to bicycle or automotive manufacturers. These manufacturers could then make lighter vehicles that consume less energy.
Reference details
Nanotechnology enables engineers to weld previously un-weldable aluminum alloy. Nanoparticle-enabled phase control for arc welding of unweldable aluminum alloy 7075.
7. Silver nanomesh skin electrodes
What it is
This research has investigated a new mechanical press welding process for making nanomesh shapes. These can be used for manufacturing flexible transparent electrodes.
Why it matters
Silver nanowire has high flexibility, electrical conductivity, and optical transmittance. These properties make it an interesting candidate material for next-generation wearable devices. But some applications, for example displays, require additional properties. This includes a decrease in haziness, surface roughness, and sheet resistance. Or it could be an increase in flexibility and substrate adhesion. All of these properties are claimed to be substantially improved by this research.
Reference details
Invisible silver nanomesh skin electrode via mechanical press welding.
8. Better welding of negative thermal expansion alloys
What it is
ALLVAR is the only metal alloy that shrinks with increasing temperature, i.e. it shows negative thermal expansion. All other metal expand with increasing temperature. The ultimate goal of this project is to better understand how welding ALLVAR to a positively expanding material (e.g. titanium) affects the stability of the overall resultant structure.
Why it matters
Combining negatively expanding materials with positively expanding ones results in an overall thermally stable structure. Such thermally stable structures are required for space telescopes. Other applications could include storage containers for nuclear waste, for example.
Reference details
Ultra-stable ALLVAR alloy development for space telescopes. SBIR grant awarded to Thermal Expansion Solutions.
9. Ceramic composites
What it is
This project investigates using commercially available arc welding technologies for joining silicon carbide based ceramics. The specific context of this project are applications in nuclear reactors. There, ceramic matrix composites play an important role because they can tolerate very high operating temperatures.
Why it matters
So far, technologies like brazing are used for joining ceramic matrix composites. But the problem with brazing is that the resultant joint material may not be as chemically stable, hermetic, or neutron irradiation tolerant as the original material. Welding may be a better solution. It may enable the manufacturing of more complex composites for Generation IV nuclear reactors.
Reference details
Joining of ceramic composites for nuclear applications. SBIR grant awarded to UES.
10. Natural fibers
What it is
In natural fiber welding, polymers within natural fibers enable fusing and bonding together of natural fibers. This creates higher performance yarns and fabrics, without using glues or resins. The goal of this project is to develop new methods for including indigo dyes into the natural fiber welding process. This process can then be used for manufacturing dyed denim.
Why it matters
Currently, making denim products requires large amounts of water and chemicals. This project could help make this process a lot more sustainable, both economically and ecologically, because the proposed manufacturing process employs closed-loop recycling.
Reference details
Scalable manufacture of natural fiber welded yarn. SBIR grant awarded to Natural Fiber Welding.
