Patent ID: 8558133

Claim:
A method of setting an operating frequency of a forge welding machine for a preferred effective width of the heat affected zone during the forge weld of one or more materials forming a weld heating length when the one or more materials move past a forge weld point at a weld velocity, each of the one or more materials having a thermal diffusivity value; an electrical resistivity value; a relative magnetic permeability value; a density value; and a thickness, the method using a processor executing a forge welding computer program, the method comprising the steps of: (a) using the processor to input a value for the preferred effective width of the heat affected zone to the forge welding computer program; (b) using the processor to input a value for a trial forge welding machine operating frequency to the forge welding computer program; (c) using the processor to determine a calculated width of the heat affected zone by multiplying a computed trial normalized width of the heat affected zone by a trial normalized thermal reference depth within execution of the forge welding computer program, the computed trial normalized width of the heat affected zone determined from the value for the trial forge welding machine operating frequency; and (d) using the processor to set the operating frequency of the forge welding machine to the value for the trial forge welding machine operating frequency if the difference between the calculated width of the heat affected zone and the value for the preferred effective width of the heat affected zone is within a tolerance value of zero, or to incrementally change the value for the trial forge welding machine operating frequency within execution of the forge welding computer program and repeating the processor execution of the above series of operations comprising steps (b) through (d) with the incrementally changed trial forge welding machine operating frequency replacing the value for the trial forge welding machine frequency if the difference between the calculated width of the heat affected zone and the value for the preferred effective width of the heat affected zone is not within the tolerance value of zero.