Application of Acoustic Emission Technique and Friction Welding for Excavator Hose Nipple

Friction welding is a very useful joining process to weld metals which have axially symmetric cross section. In this paper, the feasibility of industry application was determined by analyzing the mechanical properties of weld region for a specimen of tube-to-tube shape for excavator hose nipple with friction welding, and optimized welding variables were suggested. In order to accomplish this object, friction heating pressure and friction heating time were selected as the major process variables and the experiment was performed in three levels of each parameter. An acoustic emission(AE) technique was applied to evaluate the optimal friction welding conditions nondestructively. AE parameters of accumulative count and event were analyzed in terms of generating trend of AE signals across the full range of friction weld. The typical waveform and frequency spectrum of AE signals which is generated by friction weld were discussed. From this study the optimal welding variables could be suggested as rotating speed of 1300 rpm, friction heating pressure of 15 MPa, and friction heating time of 10 sec. AE event was a useful parameter to estimate the tensile strength of tube-to tube specimen with friction weld.