Electromagnetic pulse welding and forming equipment

System overview

• Maximal storage energy : 50 kJ
• Maximal pulse energy : 40 kJ
• Maximal voltage 25 kV (22.36 kV @ 40 kJ)
• Maximal pulse current 500 kA 

System description

The magnetic pulse system utilizes recent technological advances, based on magnetic pulse technology, for the welding, forming and crimping applications. It offers a unique alternative to manufacturers, as it allows them to improve significantly their product designs and production results.

• For welding, the system allows the creation of a solid state weld between similar or dissimilar metals, such as aluminum, copper, steel, stainless steel, nickel, magnesium and so on.
• For forming, the system provides a solution for forming, cutting and perforating metal sheets or tubes into complicated shapes, all in a single step and with a single-sided die.
• For crimping, the system enables to perform a crimping of most types of materials, even those with limited ductility (such as cast aluminum), where traditional crimping processes may cause them to break, due to their mechanical properties.

The starting phase of the magnetic pulse process – the charging phase, during which the system reaches the required energy level for the pulse, lasts only few seconds, and may be executed in parallel to the loading of the work-pieces into the system (using an automatic feeding machine), which yields an improved production rate.

The ending phase – the creation of the magnetic pulse, is executed within just milliseconds, which prevents the work-pieces from getting overheated, thus it eliminates the costs and time required by traditional welding, forming and crimping processes. Moreover, as the magnetic pulse process does not affect the metallurgical properties of the materials involved, it enables the manufacturer to save in materials weight and costs (welding), to reduce the costs associated with
producing dies (forming), and to eliminate the time and costs that are required while using alternative methods as a replacem.

 

  

   

Components

The magnetic pulse system consists of five main components :

• The high voltage cabinet – is where the electric current pulses created.
• The energy storage cabinet – is where the electric current pulses stored.
• The operating panel – is the panel through which the operator controls the system.
• The work tabele – is where the welding, forming or crimping processes generated.
• The transformer – is the replacement for the work table, for applications that require high current, low voltage and low frequency.

Coils

The system may use the following types of coils :

• Circular coils – used for the welding and crimping processes, as well as for forming, cutting and perforating processes of tubular applications.
• A field shaper can be used to match one basic coil to a variety of interchangeable products/applications.
• Flat coils – used for the forming, cutting and perforating processes of flat applications.

Working principles

The high energy electric current that is discharged through the coil, creates an eddy current within the work-piece/s. This generates electromagnetic forces between the coil and the work-piece/s. The magnetic fields generated strongly repel each other, with a force proportional to the square of the discharged current.

In the welding process, these forces cause the outer work-piece to plastically deformed and accelerate towards the inner work-piece, thus creating a cold weld that is much stronger than the base metals joined.

In the crimping process, these forces cause the outer work-piece to plastically deformed and accelerate towards a new shape of an inner work-piece under a very high pressure, thus creating a stress-free crimp of the outer work-piece.

In the forming, cutting and perforating processes, these forces cause the work-piece to accelerate towards a single side die. The work-piece is shaped to the die, perforated and cut into the required shape, all in one single operation.