Mike Schaff

This machine was designed to join dissimilar metals together using an industrial process known as Friction Welding. To accomplish this, up to 120,000 Joules of energy is stored in a 100 pound flywheel spinning at speeds up to 4,500 revolutions per minute. This energy is transferred with custom gears to a spindle that holds the rotating work piece to be welded.  Hydraulics provide up to 20,000 pounds of force needed to create the friction between the stationary and rotating work pieces, heating them to forge temperatures of over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.  When the energy in the flywheel is depleted, the rotating piece comes to a stop and the two are joined together with a bond that is as strong as the materials themselves.  

The frame, flywheel, custom gears, spindle, shafts, keys, couplers, bearing blocks, safety cage, and control panel were all designed and built in-house.  The remaining components were specified and procured by students working as a collaborative team to produce the final assembly.

The Inertial Friction Welder was designed and built over two semesters by the students of Prof. Reilly's Mechanical Design and Design elements classes.

Jon Rodriguez (ME '12) preparing gear blanks on the lathe.

The finished gear train, assebled.

The finished assembly of the welder.

Warning: Student Designed.