Equipment for Solid State Stir Welding of High Temperature Materials

Stir welding generates high-quality joints in fabricated structure and is the baseline joining process for most NASA aluminum alloy structures such as cryogenic tanks and lightweight structures. Incorporating ultrasonic vibration to critical stir welding machine components will enable and expand stir welding to other high-strength, high-temperature alloys using solid state joining. This project will scale up proven ultrasonic vibration technology and incorporate it on a NASA stir welding machine for the weld fabrication of extendable liquid rocket engine skirts and other high temperature applications for space structures.

Aerospace and commercial airframe structures, Navy and commercial ship building (Ti and Steel alloys), bridge structures, rail car structure, tank trucks, DOD tracked and wheeled vehicles

Solid state stir welding of thick-section aluminum, titanium, and high temperature nickel alloy materials is enabled for the improved manufacture of extendable rocket engine nozzle skirt applications, space vehicle primary structure, cryogenic tank structure, and for other fabricated structures for high temperature space craft structural components. Supports welding in space capabilities.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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