MTI's LF35-75 Linear Friction Welder: A Closer Look

If you're looking for full-sized part development, look no further than MTI's LF35-75 linear friction welder. This one-of-a-kind machine located at LIFT in Detroit, Michigan could be the best fit for you and your next project.

The LF35-75 has the largest tooling envelope of any linear friction welder in the world, meaning it allows you to produce the largest  full-scale parts, such as bladed disks (blisks) or integrally bladed rotors (IBRs), aircraft engines, near-net shapes, and bimetallic parts. This machine can join a nearly limitless number of shapes and complex part geometries. 

The LF35-75 uses the latest in Linear Friction Welding technology to improve aerospace companies’ buy-to-fly ratios, referring to the weight of the raw material purchased, compared to the weight of the final part.

This machine is ideal for companies not looking to invest in their own friction welder at this time; the LF35-75 is run and maintained by MTI and is currently open for development work at LIFT. In an effort to best serve our North American customers, MTI and LIFT have shared capacity of the machine.

Linear Friction Welding

Linear Friction Welding is a solid-state joining process in which one part moves in a linear motion at high speed and is pressed against another part held stationary. The resulting friction heats the parts, causing them to forge together. Not only does Linear Friction Welding guarantee a vast increase in production and efficiency, but there are countless other benefits when using this joining technology.

Benefits of the LF35-75 & Linear Friction Welding

• • Near-Net Shape applications - Extremely helpful when it comes to reduced material usage (saving on procurement costs) and reduced waste material (saving on recycle and waste disposal costs).
  • High Volume Applications - Beneficial because it is an economy of scale. Although there are expenses related to the initial tooling and prototyping stages, the low cost per unit easily offsets them in a large production run.
  • Highest Possible Joint Properties - Resulting weld joints are of forged quality, with a 100% butt joint weld through the contact area. 
  • Solid-Phase Guarantee - This means there will be no melting, cracking, void fractions, nor does it emit smoke, fumes, or gases that need to be exhausted on the back end.
  • Burn-off Removes Oxides/Impurities - This is extremely beneficial because it improves the products’ quality and appearance.
  • Environmentally Friendly - The LF35-75 is entirely environmentally friendly and safe because Linear Friction Welding is an ecologically clean process that requires no consumables, flux, filler material, or shielding gases to run, like conventional welding methods.

Machine Specs

• Size: 22’ x 8 x 14’
• Weight: 122,000 pounds (61 metrics tons)
• Forge Force: 7.5t US, 6.8 metric tons to 75t US, 68.05 metric tons
• Positional Accuracy: The LF35-75 can oscillate the moving mass of a pickup truck and stopping it within a couple thousandths of an inch.
• Oscillation Process: Oscillation, frequency and amplitude are customized to each friction welding application.
• Support and Vibration Isolation: 30 to 1 stationary to moving mass ratio. For every pound of mass that we move up and down in oscillation, we react those 30 times in static mass.

Accreditation

MTI is accredited by the global cooperative accredit program for aerospace engineering, defense, and related industries. Additionally, MTI is Nadcap and ISO 9001-certified, AS9100-registered, ITAR-compliant, and has been a trusted partner to aerospace companies for decades. 

Want to know more?

With machines in use around the globe, MTI is the world leader in designing and building friction welding machines by helping major industries solve many of their most complex manufacturing problems. Companies both large and small are encouraged to reach out to MTI or LIFT to see how the LF35-75 machine and our other services can help them achieve their goals. From aerospace, automotive, defense, rail, and mining industries, our customers now have a machine capable of full-scale parts available for use in Detroit, Michigan. Contact us today to learn more about this machine and to explore how it can help improve your applications.

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