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Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
Improving Global Quality of Life
structures where reactive embedded materials can serve as sensing devices and/or actuators.
Advancements within this technology will permit fabrication of hardware with advanced materials
such as titanium, stainless steels, and nickel based alloys, increasing widespread use.
Additive manufacturing
:
A suite of potential tools for additive manufacturing is being qualified
through a five stage process for certification for their use in aerospace markets. Leading processes
are laser/powder and laser/wire, as well as electron beam free form fabrication (EBFFF). Much work
remains to be done to qualify these and other processes (e.g. model and control distortion) for
implementation into end use applications which include titanium alloys, stainless steels, and nickel
based alloys, with particular emphasis on increasing the buy-to-fly ratios for expensive and long
lead time articles such as titanium forgings, and increasingly expensive high alloy materials.
High-efficiency Al and Mg alloys
:
Welding and joining of micro and nano-sized composite materials
(
with insoluble particles; with fibres and nets; multilayer macro-sized; multilayer micro- and nano-
sized).
Heat-resistant materials
:
Building of new generations of aircraft and rocket engines will require
development of new processes for joining advanced materials and new specialised equipment.
Widening of applications of nickel-base alloys with single crystal structure, heat-resistant and
radiation-resistant alloys, refractory metals, ceramic and cermet composite materials can be
anticipated. It should be planned to work on making structural components of engines by using
new welding methods, as well as manufacturing them by micro-layer growing from liquid-vapour
matrices. New structural materials will be developed based on optimisation of their weldability.
Elaboration of the new principles for decreasing degradation of welded joints in operation of
structures will provide their long service life and high performance.
9.19
Welding in space
Predicted development and challenges of welding and related technologies for space applications can be
summarised as following:
Welding equipment
:
Electron Beam (EB) and Laser Beam (LB) welding processes, EB brazing, laser brazing,
deposition of coatings using EB and LB heating, equipment developments for mechanised and manual
processes.
Auxiliary equipment
:
Manipulators, tilters, robotised welding systems.
Power supplies
:
Solar energy converters, power generation (life support low-power reactors), thermoelectric
converters.
Moon exploration prediction:
1.
Utilisation of transformable large-size welded shell structures for construction of long-term lunar outposts
(
LLO).
2.
Application of EB and laser technologies for carrying out different operations on the Moon:
Assembly and damage control operations using welding, brazing and coating.
Processing of moon rock to produce oxygen.
Melting of moon rock to produce different metallic and non-metallic materials.
Floating-zone melting to produce super pure perfect semiconductor materials, composite materials
and intermetallics.
9
Needs and challenges of major industry sectors for future applications
