Industry and academia unite at Linear Friction Welding Event

Mon, 25 March, 2019

TWI held a successful fifth biennial Linear Friction Welding Symposium at our Cambridge site on 20-21^st March.

Around 70 people from industry and academia attended the event where 21 presentations provided information on the friction process with applications for a range of industries.

Attendees from the linear friction welding world came together from as far away as Japan and the United States to attend the symposium, including representatives from aerospace, power, mining, defence, and the automotive industries as well as those from universities, equipment manufacturers and research organisations.

The diversification of the attendees shows a positive trend for the growth of this event and linear friction welding in general.

As well as the presentations, the symposium included a tour of the TWI facilities where attendees were able to see the latest work in linear friction welding, friction stir welding, refill friction stir spot welding and rotary friction welding.

The symposium also included a dinner at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford where food and drinks were served under the wing of Concorde and entertainment was provided by a 1950s-style band, The Polka Dots.

Rhodri Lewis of Renishaw PLC was one of the attendees who provided positive feedback, saying, “[It was an] excellent symposium with a great balance between industry, research, and academia.”

Meanwhile, Rob Gil of The MTC stated, “if you are currently involved in linear friction welding , or you were in the past, this is the event to keep you up to date.”

Elsewhere, Sabrina Ahsan of the University of Tokyo concluded, “It is an excellent event to bring industry and academia together.”

This latest event was certainly a success for all involved and is certainly set to be repeated in the future.

However, until then, you can find out more about Linear Friction Welding here.