Coldwater joins Edison Welding Institute

Coldwater, Ohio – Coldwater Machine Co. has joined the Edison Welding Institute (EWI), a North American engineering and technology advanced materials joining organization, and has installed one of its SpotMeld systems at EWI for research focused on the joining of advanced materials.

“EWI has driven multiple innovations in the field of friction-based welding technologies,” says Tim McCaughey, Coldwater Machine president. “We are excited to partner with them in further development of manufacturing solutions that can address the challenges presented by today’s growing use of advanced and lightweight materials in a variety of industries.”

SpotMeld is a refill friction stir spot weld (RFSSW) solution that enables spot joining of aluminum (1000 – 7000 series), magnesium, non-ferrous, and dissimilar sheet materials, offering an alternative to single-point joining processes like resistance spot welding, laser welding, and riveting.

Relying on RFSSW technology, Coldwater’s SpotMeld system uses rotational friction to heat the materials along with pressure, melding the parts together using wear-resistant tooling to join two or more surfaces. Heat is generated between the tool and material, creating a soft region. Pressure is then applied, resulting in a solid state joint.

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In addition to its ability to join dissimilar and lightweight materials, benefits include high quality joints with a small heat affected zone, consistency in weld duplication and faster meld times, as well as being environmentally cleaner and safer with no filler material, spatter, smoke, radiation or shield gasses.

Source: Coldwater Machine Co.