COME TALK WITH THE WORLD EXPERTS IN SOLID STATE PROCESSING
Bond at FABTECH Chicago | Sept. 8–11 | Booth #B17039 with KUKA | RFSSW on a KUKA Robot!
Bond at FABTECH Chicago
Sept. 8–11 | Booth #B17039 with
KUKA RFSSW on a KUKA Robot!
Friction Extrusion (FE) is moving beyond the research lab as manufacturers, national laboratories, universities, and research organizations explore new ways to develop high-performance materials, recover valuable metals, engineer specialized feedstock, and support emerging solid-state manufacturing processes.
Bond Technologies designed and built the world’s first purpose-built Friction Extrusion machine because we believed this technology needed equipment designed specifically for the process — not adapted from something else.
Today, interest in FE continues to grow. Researchers are exploring stronger alloys, improved conductivity, recycled feedstocks, metal matrix composites, and new material combinations with properties engineered around specific applications.
Bond builds the Friction Extrusion systems that help make that research and development possible.
Friction Extrusion is a solid-state process that uses friction and severe plastic deformation to process and extrude material without melting it.
Because FE can consolidate and reshape material while modifying its microstructure, the process creates opportunities that extend beyond conventional extrusion.
Friction Extrusion can support research and development involving:
Friction Extrusion and Additive Friction Stir Deposition (AFSD) are different processes, but they share important materials science. Both use friction-driven thermomechanical processing and severe plastic deformation rather than melting the material.
The difference is in what they do.
FE primarily creates or modifies material and feedstock. AFSD deposits material to build or repair components.
AFSD requires solid feedstock with controlled geometry and material properties. Friction Extrusion can produce extruded forms while also providing opportunities to consolidate recycled material, develop composites, and engineer new material combinations.
That makes FE a potentially valuable tool for researchers exploring specialized feedstock for AFSD and other solid-state additive manufacturing processes.
As additive manufacturing continues to advance, FE creates opportunities to look beyond how a part is manufactured and consider how the material going into that part could be engineered as well.
Bond’s FE100 is available as a base model, with customized configurations in development to meet specific customer demands. Download the FE Series brochure to view its current specifications.
Material efficiency is increasingly important across aerospace, defense, energy, and advanced manufacturing — particularly when working with high-value metals.
Machining these materials can generate significant amounts of chips and other material that traditionally must be remelted before returning to the manufacturing cycle.
Friction Extrusion offers another approach.
FE can consolidate machining chips and other material into useful extruded forms without a conventional remelting step. Research has also explored the use of Friction Extrusion to convert high-value metal waste into feedstock for additive manufacturing.
That creates possibilities for more circular material flows, where machining waste can be processed through Friction Extrusion to create new feedstock for downstream manufacturing.
For organizations looking to improve material utilization, recover high-value metals, or develop new feedstock strategies, solid-state recycling represents an important area of opportunity for FE.
Friction Extrusion is not limited to processing conventional alloys.
The process can also be used to investigate powders, particles, composites, recycled materials, and new material combinations designed around specific performance requirements.
Researchers are exploring materials with goals that include:
Bond Technologies is pleased to offer the world’s first purpose-built Friction Extrusion machine.
Friction Extrusion produces rods and tubes with material properties that are not possible with conventional extrusion technology.
Using friction to refine the grain structure can enhance corrosion resistance, increase ductility and other benefits for certain alloys. Environmental benefits can include lower energy consumption as compared to conventional extrusion, ability to recycle and up-cycle materials, and the possibility to create specialty alloys from chips and powder.
Friction Extrusion was invented in 1991, but for much of its history, researchers lacked equipment developed specifically for the process.
Bond Technologies changed that.
Bond designed and built the first purpose-built Friction Extrusion machine, providing researchers with a dedicated platform for process development, material characterization, and advanced FE applications.
Today, Bond develops FE systems around the forces, torque, process control, data acquisition, tooling, and material behavior specific to Friction Extrusion.
Bond’s experience includes dedicated FE platforms as well as highly specialized systems developed for advanced national laboratory research.
The Bond FE100 platform has also been used in independent peer-reviewed Friction Extrusion research, extending the technology’s role into the broader materials research community.
Emerging manufacturing technologies require more than equipment. They require an understanding of the process behind it.
Bond Technologies combines machine design, controls, tooling, materials science, and decades of experience in friction-based processing to help customers develop equipment around their application and research goals.
We work with national laboratories, universities, research organizations, and manufacturers investigating new materials, new processes, and new possibilities for solid-state manufacturing.
As Friction Extrusion moves from advanced research toward broader manufacturing applications, Bond is committed to providing the equipment and technical expertise needed to move the technology forward.
Stronger materials. Recycled feedstocks. New material combinations. Specialized additive manufacturing feedstock.
The possibilities for Friction Extrusion continue to expand as more organizations explore what the process can do.
If you are developing a new material, evaluating FE for an advanced manufacturing program, or considering how Friction Extrusion could support your additive manufacturing strategy, talk with Bond Technologies about your application.