Abstract: For forming or consolidating organic matrix composites, an organic matrix composite panel is placed between sheets of a susceptor material that is susceptible to induction heating. The susceptor sheets enclose the panel and define a retort. Peripheral gaskets temporarily seal the retort when the retort is placed within upper and lower dies of an induction heating workcell where the susceptor sheets are heated inductively. The sheets in turn conduct heat to the organic matrix composite panel. When heated to the desired temperature, the composite panel is consolidated and/or formed. In some circumstances, edge seal strips are used to provide electrical continuity between the upper and lower sheets in the retort. An analogous retort can be used for metal processing operations.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming and consolidating organic matrix composites. An organic matrix composite panel comprising laid-up prepegs is placed between sheets of a susceptor material that is susceptible to inductive heating to form a workpiece. The resulting workpiece is placed within upper and lower dies formed of a material that is not susceptible to inductive heating. An induction coil embedded within the dies is energized and inductively heats the susceptor sheets surrounding the panel. The sheets in turn conductively heat the organic matrix composite panel. A pressure zone between the workpiece and one of the dies is pressurized to form the workpiece to the contour of a forming surface on one of the dies. The pressure in the pressure zone is maintained on the workpiece until the organic matrix composite panel is fully consolidated and formed.

Abstract: A narrow susceptor is incorporated into the die in the vicinity of a bondline between two or more parts in an induction heating workcell. When the induction coil of the workcell is energized, the susceptor heats and preferentially heats the parts near the bondline. The preferential heating is localized at the bondline and reduces energy losses otherwise expended to heat large thermal masses in the workcell or to heat the entire parts.

Abstract: A hybrid metal webbed composite beam includes a metal I or T web section and a composite cap formed over and adhered to the I or T web. The beam incorporates the advantages of metals and composites in modern aerospace construction allowing thermoplastic welding of the beam to skins while having the strength of metal.

Abstract: Disclosed is a high-frequency heating apparatus including an elongated chamber in which a plurality of rocker arms are introduced, each of the rocker arms being attached with a chip and brazing filler such as a copper wax, a high-frequency brazing coil for high-frequency heating a designated part of each rocker arm in the chamber to braze the chip to the rocker arm, a high-frequency temperature-holding coil for holding the temperature of the rocker arm constant, and a nitrogen gas supplying device for keeping the chamber filled with a nitrogenous atmosphere during the high-frequency heating.

Abstract: In a method of hot brazing aluminum articles, the steps of: interposing an amount of a flux-containing brazing agent (12) between portions of aluminum articles (11, 11) which are to be adjoined one to another; gripping the portions with a pair of heaters (13); and then activating the heater so that heat conducted therefrom melts the brazing agent (12) to braze the aluminum articles (11), are carried out in this order. The brazing agent (12) is a compacted agent composed of a matrix powder and a flux powder, at a ratio in weight of 99.9:0.1 to 70:30, and the agent has a density corresponding to 90% or more of a theoretical value.

Abstract: The present system is directed to both a method and apparatus for manufacture of teeth for use in drill bits. The desired tooth is formed by a hard carbide, a protective disc placed on the end of the support, the joinder being accomplished by a braze metal layer. The process contemplates positioning the disc in a matching receptacle within the head of a molding apparatus wherein the head and cavity of the head are exposed to the terminus of several coolant flow lines through the head so that the disc is brought into contact with flowing coolant. The fluid coolant is delivered by a compressor at elevated pressure and is a flow of cooled gas after dehydration. Rapid flow of heat into cooled support at the base prevent deterioration of the diamond layer while allowing use of higher temperature braze metals.

Abstract: The present system is directed to both a method and apparatus for manufacture of teeth for use in drill bits. The desired tooth is formed by a hard carbide, a protective disc placed on the end of the support, the joinder being accomplished by a braze metal layer. The process contemplates positioning the disc in a matching receptacle within the head of a molding apparatus wherein the head and cavity of the head are exposed to the terminus of several coolant flow lines through the head so that the disc is brought into contact with flowing coolant. The fluid coolant is delivered by a compressor at elevated pressure and is a flow of cooled gas after dehydration. Rapid flow of heat into cooled support at the base prevent deterioration of the diamond layer while allowing use of higher temperature braze metals.

Abstract: Disclosed is a high-frequency heating apparatus including an elongated chamber in which a plurality of rocker arms are introduced, each of the rocker arms being attached with a chip and brazing filler such as a copper wax, a high-frequency brazing coil for high-frequency heating a designated part of each rocker arm in the chamber to braze the chip to the rocker arm, a high-frequency temperature-holding coil for holding the temperature of the rocker arm constant, and a nitrogen gas supplying device for keeping the chamber filled with a nitrogenous atmosphere during the high-frequency heating.

Abstract: Multisheet SPF parts with braze joints at selected locations are produced with improved energy efficiency and at lower cost by heating the multisheet pack to its superplastic forming range below the melting point of the braze alloy, superplastically forming the pack to define braze joints having unmelted braze alloy; increasing the temperature to the braze temperature of the braze alloy, and cooling the pack below the superplastic range to freeze the braze alloy in the braze joint.

Abstract: A metal matrix composite is made by roll consolidating a sandwich formed from alternating layers of a matrix metal, a brazing alloy, and reinforcing fiber at elevated temperature and pressure. If made in a process using mandrels to impart the pressure and heat, such as a process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,562, the metal matrix composite is kept separate from the mandrels by using a release agent or stop-off such as a layer of boron nitride between the mandrel and layup.

Abstract: A welded tube monitoring and control system includes a programmable logic controller (PLC) which receives data from a plurality of input apparatus which monitor the tube manufacturing process, and which generates output data to control various components of the tube manufacturing system. An apparatus for measuring the width of the flat metal strip prior to forming the tube transmits measurements to the PLC. The width of the strip is compared to a set of threshold parameters programmed in the PLC, and an alarm is triggered if the measured width exceeds these threshold parameters. A temperature measuring apparatus is located at the welding site to measure the temperature of the weld. The weld temperature is transmitted to the PLC and compared with a set of threshold parameters, and an alarm is triggered is the measured temperature exceeds the threshold parameters. An eddy-current testing apparatus is located downstream of the welding apparatus and transmits data to the PLC.

Abstract: A device 10 usable in conjunction with a source of constant amplitude high frequency alternating current of known frequency for providing sufficient thermal energy to melt a fusible electrically conductive material 24 includes an integral member formed from strip 12 of a first metal having a carrier strip section 14 and a plurality of fingers 20 initially integrally coextending therefrom. The carrier strip section 14 further has a thin magnetic layer 18 thereon, transforming the carrier strip into a Curie point heater. The fingers 20 including end portions 22 having layers of solder affixed to opposite sides thereof are adapted to be inserted into apertures 36 defined through a first electrical article 30 from a first surface 32 to a remote surface 34 thereof and adjacent contact pads 40 thereon. The first and second electrical articles 30,46 are placed together with the respective contact pads 40,48 opposed from each other and separated by the finger end portions 22.

Abstract: A welding management apparatus for use with a tube production machine. A workpiece fed from a roll of metal strip is formed in a tubular formation having side surfaces opposite to each other. An upsetting pressure is applied to joint the opposite side surfaces of the workpiece at a jointing point. A high frequency power is supplied to the workpiece to weld the opposite side surfaces at the jointing point so as to produce a metal tube member. The welding management apparatus comprises a camera positioned to have a visual field including the jointing point for producing a video signal indicative of an image including an area luminous with a pre-arc produced in the visual field. An image processor converts the video signal into a luminance distribution pattern. An inference unit is provided for inferring a defective welding condition based upon the luminance distribution pattern. The inference unit includes an alarm unit for producing an alarm when a defective welding condition is inferred.

Abstract: A pipe welding apparatus which utilizes a pair of welding electrodes which are at least ninety degrees spaced apart relative to a cylindrical workpiece. The welding procedure only occurs during movement of each welding electrode from an upper position to a lower position.

Abstract: Welding is controlled from a control station (14) located at some distance from the welding zone. Before the start of a welding pass, the welding parameters are set by an operator, to whom the values to be given to the parameters as a function of the type of pass are supplied by a memory in which the information relating to the welding is stored. The welding operation is started, after the parameters have been checked as a function of the content of the memory. The welding operation is monitored continuously by the operator by means of a remote screen display of the welding zone. If appropriate, the operator changes some of the welding parameters according to the screen image of the welding zone. These changes are checked by comparison with the content of the memory.

Abstract: The body blanks (10) are moved through, with overlapping longitudinal edges, between an inner and an outer electrode roller (14, 24), the axes (16, 26) of which lie substantially in a common plane (II--II) normal to the direction (A) of the axes of the body blanks (10). Also lying in this plane (II--II) are the axes of a plurality of sizing rollers (34, 36, 38) which are disposed in a ring and one of which (38) is disposed diametrically opposite to the outer electrode roller (24). This sizing roller (38) and a guide roller (42) which is disposed in front of it in the direction (A) of the axes of the body blanks (10) are encircled jointly by an endless conveyor element (46). The guide roller (42) and hence also the conveyor element (46) can be driven by a servomotor (50) which is controlled according to the signals of an angle-of-rotation transmitter (30) rotating with the outer electrode roller (24).

Abstract: A method for restarting the longitudinal welding seam when producing thin-walled tubes from a metal tape comprises the steps of starting welding with the tape in motion and the welding current amperage being gradually raised from zero to the steady state values, a steady state step in which the longitudinal welding seam is continuously produced and the welding current amperage is at its steady state value, a third step in which the welding is stopped and the welding current amperage is gradually decreased from its steady state value to nearly zero, and a restarting stage in which the welding seam is overcast partially behind the point at which it had been stopped and the welding current amperage is gradually raised from nearly zero to the steady state value once again. An apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed.

Abstract: It is necessary to determine welding temperature as precisely as possible in order to properly control the high-frequency welding of longitudinal pipes. Changes in welding temperature are proportional to alterations in the welding current that flows through the edges of the skelp. Magnetic-field sensors can be used to directly and precisely determine alterations in the current and hence changes in the temperature. Voltages induced in the sensors can be processed into setting signals to correct the high-frequency welding generator and disruptions in the current used to generate signals to mark the site of failure on the pipe for subsequent rejection.

Abstract: It is necessary to determine the effects of welding pressure in order to control the high-frequency welding process in the manufacture of pipes with longitudinal seams. It has been discovered that measurements of the height of the welding bead provide an approximation that is satisfactory for determining the mass of the bead, which is proportional to welding pressure in known pipe geometry. The height of the bead is transmitted by an optical system to the diode matrix of a commercially available diode-matrix camera. The results are processed to control welding pressure.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling a work function, such as, for example, welding, requiring the control of at least one parameter according to a predetermined sequence, the apparatus including at least one work station where the work function is carried out, a slave controller associated with the work station for controlling the work function, at least one interface operably connected to the slave controller capable of receiving and storing information for a first parameter of the work function and preventing transmission of the parameter information to the slave controller until being probed by the slave controller, and a master controller operably connected to the interface to transmit thereto the parameter information, and the master controller being further operably connected to the slave controller to cause the slave controller to probe the interface to allow transmission of the parameter information to the slave controller.

Abstract: Pipe components, i.e., pipes, adapting members and fittings made of weldable plastic, are interconnected by electrically weldable joints. The welding process is made possible by a welding sleeve 3 being connected to the output 4 of the device. A switch-on monitor 11 permits the switching on of a switch stage 7 of the welding current circuit. The thermal energy is determined by square-law simulation of the welding or mains voltage in a pulse generator 9, which produces a pulse frequency which is dependent on this value and whose pulses are summed in a counter 10. Once a count value that corresponds to the thermal energy has been reached, the switch stage 7 is switched off. If the count value is not reached a function monitor 5 gives a warning signal.

Abstract: Markings are placed alongside the gap of a split tube and their distance is measured downstream from the point of welding; the measuring result is used to control upsetting pressure in the weld print.

Abstract: An apparatus for monitoring and controlling a welding phenomenon in an electric resistance welding process, which comprises a welding characteristics measuring instrument for carrying out digital measurement of at least one of high frequency welding characteristics, a welding phenomenon monitor circuit for detecting variations in the welding characteristics, and a welding phenomenon controller circuit for automatically adjusting a parameter of a welding power source or other welding conditions, wherein the welding characteristics include an oscillating frequency and an oscillating period of a high frequency used for the welding, and a phase difference between a high frequency voltage and a current. Changes in the welding characteristics occur in correspondence with the occurrence of periodic fluctuations in the shape of the high frequency welding current circuit formed in the material to be welded during high frequency electric resistance welding process.

Abstract: A method of, and apparatus for, respectively controlling the start of welding and the termination of welding during continuous resistance welding with the aid of an alternating-current at a roll-welding machine, wherein at least at one measuring station or location arranged ahead or upstream of the welding station or location and the workpiece to be welded passing through the measuring station there is determined the position as a function of time of the leading end as well as the trailing end of the workpiece to be welded with respect to the frequency and the phase of the welding current. By means of a computer processing the determined value there is accommodated to one another the speed of the workpiece to be welded and the frequency and phase of the welding current in such a manner that the first welding spot and the last welding spot are applied at an adjustable spacing from the leading end and the trailing end, respectively, of the workpiece to be welded.

Abstract: A machine for the automatic butt welding of pipes on tube plates by TIG or plasma process with or without weld metal, or of abutting pipes with TIG or plasma process with internal torch, comprising a control unit for programming the welding parameters according to cycles suitable to the different welding types and a gun which will be centered on the pipes to be welded, supporting a torch which can effect more sequential revolutions, wherein the supplies of the fluids (inert gas, cooling fluid, etc.