Patent ID: 7080770

Claim:
A method of inertia friction welding, comprising: providing a pair of sample parts by connecting one of the pair of sample parts with a spindle and connecting the other sample part with a slide; inertia friction welding together the pair of sample parts resulting in rotational deceleration of the spindle, movement of the slide toward the spindle and contact between the one sample part and the other sample part causing upset formation and resulting in formation of a sample weld; acquiring data related to the rotational deceleration of the spindle and the movement of the slide during the formation of the sample weld; calculating a profile from the acquired data; providing a pair of production parts by connecting one of the pair of production parts with the spindle and connecting the other production part with the slide; specifying an amount of final upset formation to be experienced by the pair of production parts; inertia friction welding together the pair of production parts resulting in rotational deceleration of the spindle, movement of the slide toward the spindle and contact between the one production part and the other production part causing upset formation and resulting in formation of a production weld; modifying the profile based on the difference between the final upset of the sample weld and the specified amount of final upset formation; calculating the difference between the upset formation resulting from the inertia friction welding of the pair of production parts and an upset setpoint calculated from the modified profile; and modulating an input applied to the pair of production parts during the inertia friction welding of the pair of production parts based on the calculated upset difference thereby controlling upset formation of the pair of production parts to achieve the specified amount of final upset formation.