| Summary: | Titanium alloys are key materials in engines due to their low density, their high mechanical properties and their good resistance to corrosion and oxidation. Titanium engine parts are manufactured most of the time by forging, giving good mechanical properties associated with the possibility to optimize final microstructures of the parts.
Due to design challenges consisting of making parts more robust and lighter, new processes are emerging. For some parts, friction welding can give opportunities to achieve those objectives because these assemblies are characterised by very good mechanical properties, generally higher than the raw unwelded materials [1].
As a consequence, the friction welding process is finding increasing applications as a manufacturing technology for the production of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V aerospace components [2]. Among those processes, the Orbital Friction Welding (OFW) technology is under study for low pressure compressors manufacturing. The BLuM® (Bladed drum, Figure 1), is constituted of a drum comprising several stages of friction-welded blades. Such architecture allows an important weight saving and performances improvement compared to current design.
The objective of the article consists of addressing the orbital friction welding process, through the description of its characteristics, the key process parameters, the microstructures and the way of ensuring good integrity of the interface.
The objective of the article consists of addressing the orbital friction welding process, through the description of its characteristics, the key process parameters, the microstructures and the way of ensuring good integrity of the interface.
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