Manufacturing Technology, Inc. just made history by building the world’s largest friction welding machine. It weighs 400,000 pounds and measures and 20-feet tall.
That’s heavier than three M1 Abrams tanks and taller than 272 Baconators stacked high.
The company sold the record-setting equipment to aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney to build fans for commercial and military jumbo jet engines.
What’s friction welding? It’s a joining process that involves vibrating large metal parts at high speeds, and compressing them together until they heat up and fuse. By current manufacturing standards, it creates the strongest possible weld.
Too heavy, too tall to ride: shipping the beast
Getting the machinery from South Bend, Indiana to Middletown, Connecticut was no breezy road trip.
Because of the machine’s enormous size, it required a 19-axle, 200 foot long flatbed truck with a second big rig in the back to push it. What’s more, the journey took 12 days because the rig was too tall to go under most bridges, and too heavy to go over others.
Pratt & Whitney hopes to have the welder up and running by September. According to general manager Greg Treacy, it will double the company’s manufacturing capacity.
We can’t wait to see it in action.
Sources: Manufacturing Technology