At the end of 2016, Aerospace Engineering Equipment (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. successfully delivered the third gantry type five-axis friction stir welding equipment. The equipment has the advantages of a wide welding range (maximum circumferential welding Φ3350mm), high welding speed (maximum spindle speed 4000rpm), 3D curve welding of less than 10mm, etc. The equipment delivery marks that the five-axis linkage friction stir welding equipment in China successfully developed into a mature design、optimized technology、stabilized and mass production stage from successful research in 2011.

1）         Five-axis Linkage 3D Space Curved Surface Welding Technology 

The innovative of Gantry type five-axis linkage structure achieves 3D curved friction stir welding, the structure of machine tool adopts static gantry structure, rotary shaft adopts AC double swing head structure.

2）         AC Double Swing Head Based on Filling Technology

In order to effectively reduce the difficulty of machining and assembly and reduce cost, the innovative design of circular sliding glue potting technology is adopted in A、C-axis to quickly achieve AC axis high-precision assembly.

And the use of small size、simple assembly process、large bearing capacity of the sliding rail instead of the traditional bearing form greatly improves the contact stiffness of AC swing.

3）        Technology Equipment of Gas-hydraulic combination and welding & milling integration

In order to realize the milling of the irregular edges before welding and the milling & welding integration of the welds after milling, the design team of AEE specially adopts the movable hydraulic support structure: the supporting plate is separated from the workpiece during the milling and milling for workpieces; the hydraulic cylinder support the workpiece by controlling supporting plate for friction stir welding.

4）         Real - time adjustment technology of 3D welding press-in

The innovative design of the normal virtual-axial is adopted in the equipment, operator only needs to control one position of virtual axis on the hand wheel to control the amount of shoulder press-in.

The successful development of gantry-type five-axis linkage friction stir welding equipment meets the needs of aerospace industry for the high-end equipment, substantially improves the production efficiency and the reliability of quality, plays a very good demonstration role to achieve the transformation & upgrading and green manufacturing of the traditional manufacturing, provides technological achievements transfer and industrialization promotion for fields of  automotive、rail vehicle、communications electronic and other fields.