High Productivity Aluminum Manufacturing: Phase 1

Abstract

Present practices for aluminum butt welding on LCS consist of labor-intensive and relatively costly procedures. Multiple weld passes are used to complete an aluminum weld. Besides requiring a high level of labor, multiple welding passes can result in extra weld induced distortion of weldments that requires rework. Aluminum panels and modules currently require welding from both sides. For panel line welding, this necessitates a multi-step procedure. This projects objective was to improve the current time-consuming and labor-intensive welding procedure by developing a mechanized welding method capable of single-sided, single-pass (SSSP) aluminum butt welding. Preliminary estimates of the cost savings potential of SSSP welding were in the range of 30 to 35 percent for every dollar currently spent on conventional aluminum flat down-hand butt welding.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 31, 2013
Accession Number
AD1002031

Entities

People

  • D. J. Spinella
  • Daniel M. Myers
  • Israel Stol
  • Kirit Shah
  • Kyle L. Williams
  • Philip Gacka
  • William H. Grassel

Organizations

  • Alcoa

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Arc Welding
  • Butt Welding
  • Control Systems
  • Cost Models
  • Costs
  • Geometry
  • Joints
  • Manufacturing
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Models
  • Production
  • Risk Analysis
  • Standards
  • Welding
  • Welds

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
  • Metallurgy