Industry/University Cooperative Projects Center
| Agilent | COBE Cardiovascular | Ford Motor Company | Lockheed-Martin |
| Ball Aerospace | Coors | IBM | Micro Motion |
| Ball Packaging | CTD | ICAST | Nastic Actuator Development |
| Boeing | CONMED | Intel | Sikorsky |
Sikorsky
Sikorsky Aircraft is a company that develops and manufactures helicopters for both commercial and military applications. The Blackhawk is a Sikorsky product. Sikorsky is the first name in helicopters throughout the world and has facilities throughout the U.S. Over 1200 engineers are employed by Sikorsky, with Connecticut being a primary development location.
Friction Stir Welding
Sikorsky would like to investigate the feasibility of using friction stir welding (FSW) to join aluminum detail parts onto aircraft structures. FSW uses vibratory energy to create the heat required for welding. This technique minimizes the area that is affected by heat, possibly negating the need for heat treating/stress relieving of these joined parts.
It is required to design and fabricate the test fixtures and parts that will be used in this study. It is desired to develop test plans for these welded parts and implement these plans. The test plans should take into account different FSW manufacturing parameters. This might lead to process optimization.
Additionally, comparisons will need to be made of this technology to the standard means of connecting parts on aircraft(riveting). It is possible that this FSW technology may also be suitable as a means of repairing cracked housings. This might be the basis for an additional study.