A method of titanium rod additive manufacturing may comprise: mixing a plurality of powdered metals comprising titanium, iron, vanadium, and aluminum to produce a powder blend; isostatic pressing the powder blend to form a billet having a cross-sectional profile; cutting the billet to form a rod feedstock having the first cross-sectional profile; loading the rod feedstock into an additive manufacturing machine configured to deposit the rod feedstock; and producing a metallic component from the rod feedstock.

A method of forming a rod feedstock for titanium stir friction welding additive manufacturing may comprise: mixing a plurality of powdered metals comprising titanium, iron, vanadium, and aluminum to produce a powder blend; at least one of die pressing the powder blend to form a die pressed powder or continuously powder rolling the powder blend to form a die pressed powder; and sintering the powder blend to form a rod feedstock having a cross-sectional profile.

The present invention relates to metalworking, in particular to producing vessels from non-heat-treatable aluminium alloys used for tanks and pressure vessels. Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a vessel, the method including: forming a tube by rolling at least one flat blank and abutting the edges thereof, friction stir welding the abutted edges and working at least a part of the welded tube into a shape of the vessel, wherein the flat blank is a sheet of a non-heat-treatable aluminium alloy preliminarily subjected to cold working with permanent deformation within the range of 0.5-15%, and said working of at least one part of the welded tube is hot working at a temperature of 230-520° C. The technical effect is a reduction in vessel weight, an increase in vessel strength, a uniform vessel strength and a reduction in the number of hot working cycles during manufacturing of the vessel. Further, the method provides reduced metal and time consumption in manufacturing a vessel from a non-heat-treatable aluminium alloy, low payload ratio, increased reliability and longer service life of the vessel produced using the method.

The present invention includes: a primary joining process in which a coarse portion having a predetermined width is formed in the vicinity of a step side face within a plasticized region while the rotary tool is being moved one round along a first butted portion to perform friction stirring in a state that a tip of a stirring pin of a rotary tool being rotated is inserted to the same depth as or slightly deeper than a step bottom face and a bottom face of a shoulder portion is in contact with a front face of a sealing body and the stirring pin is slightly in contact with at least an upper portion of a jacket body; and an inspection process in which a passed position of the stirring pin is specified by performing, after the primary joining process, a flaw detection to detect the coarse portion.

A system includes a tool configured to be positioned proximate to respective welding surface of separate components. The tool includes a tool head and an actuator configured to drive rotation of the tool head. The tool also includes a controller having a memory operatively coupled to a processor. The processor is configured to provide a command signal to the actuator to apply a pulsed torque to drive rotation of the tool head to facilitate joining the respective welding surfaces of the separate components to one another.

According to one embodiment, a method is disclosed for plugging an orifice. The method can include rotating a tool including a shoulder portion and a probe pin, and inserting the probe pin into a member having an orifice. The probe pin is provided at an end portion of the shoulder portion. The method can include forming a plug portion by moving the rotating tool to traverse the orifice. The plug portion plugs the orifice.

A connection arrangement comprising a metallic flat conductor having an at least quadrangular cross-sectional profile and at least two mutually opposing first and second surfaces extending at least partially parallel to one another in the longitudinal direction, at least two parts which are flat in the overlap region and which are formed as connecting lugs and which rest on the first surface with an overlap joint and project beyond one or both longitudinal edges of the flat conductor, characterized in that a metallic friction stir welded joint zone is formed starting from the second surface through the flat conductor towards the first surface and projecting into the connecting lugs.

A method for joining skin portions of a closed fuselage, in particular for an aircraft or spacecraft, has the following method steps: providing at least a first skin portion and a second skin portion, at least one of the skin portions being fitted with components to remain in the fuselage; positioning at least the first skin portion and the second skin portion relative to one another in a first joint such that the skin portions form a circumferentially closed fuselage arrangement; guiding a first joining head along the first joint on an outer surface of the fuselage arrangement; and guiding a second joining head along the first joint on an inner surface of the fuselage arrangement, the second joining head being guided along longitudinal guide means which are arranged inside the circumferentially closed fuselage arrangement and are formed at least in part by the components to remain in the fuselage.

A hard disk drive includes a base deck with a floor portion and a side wall portion. The floor portion extends between an upper surface and a bottom surface, and the side wall portion extends from the floor portion. A top cover is coupled to the base deck and includes a ceiling portion and a wall portion. The hard disk drive includes a weld that directly couples the wall portion of the top cover to the floor portion of the base deck.

A friction stir welding method for welding steel sheets together includes a heating device disposed ahead of a rotating tool in an advancing direction that preheats an unwelded portion before the welding thereof by the rotating tool and at the time of preheating, the surface temperature distribution in a direction perpendicular to the advancing direction in a position at which the welding by the rotating tool is initiated is set such that given that T.sub.Ac1 is the Ac.sub.1 point of a steel sheet, the maximum temperature (T.sub.U) thereof is 0.6×T.sub.Ac1<T.sub.U<1.8×T.sub.Ac1, and given that L is the width of the heating region exceeding a temperature (T.sub.L)=0.6×T.sub.Ac1, 0.3×d≦L≦2.0×d is satisfied with a diameter (d) of the shoulder.