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Welding Technologies in Aerospace Applications

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Aerospace Materials and Material Technologies

Part of the book series: Indian Institute of Metals Series ((IIMS))

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the joining of aerospace metals. The joining processes that are covered include gas tungsten arc, plasma arc and gas metal arc welding; resistance-based welding processes; flash butt welding; and high energy density processes such as electron beam welding, largely employed to weld titanium and nickel-base alloys. For enhanced strength and to weld dissimilar metals that are not weldable by fusion welding, solid-state welding processes such as friction welding and friction stir welding are employed. Brazing and diffusion bonding are largely used to join metal matrix composites and ceramics as well as ceramics to metals, and also nickel-base and titanium-base alloys. Magnetic pulse welding is a futuristic solid-phase welding process that may replace some of the current solid-state processes. The materials covered include aluminium, titanium and nickel-base alloys, steels, metal matrix composites, intermetallics and dissimilar metal combinations such as aluminium to stainless steel and maraging steel to low-alloy steel. Other aspects also discussed are online weld monitoring and fixturing during welding, and post-weld heat treatment to control distortion.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank all the former colleagues of the Metal Joining Group at the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, India, for their support, encouraging collaborative work and contributions that form part of the technical content of this chapter. The author is indebted to DRDO for the support and funding received to conduct some of the studies reported here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nalla Malla Reddy Engineering College, Hyderabad, India

    T. Mohandas

  2. Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, DRDO, Hyderabad, India

    T. Mohandas

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  1. T. Mohandas
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Correspondence to T. Mohandas .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Director, DMSRDE, Defence Materials and Stores R&D Establishment, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    N. Eswara Prasad

  2. Independent Consultant , KL Emmeloord, Flevoland, The Netherlands

    R.J.H. Wanhill

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Mohandas, T. (2017). Welding Technologies in Aerospace Applications. In: Prasad, N., Wanhill, R. (eds) Aerospace Materials and Material Technologies . Indian Institute of Metals Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2143-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2143-5_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2142-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2143-5

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