ESAB AND MEGASTIR® DEVELOP & MARKET FRICTION STIR WELDING SYSTEMS FOR CARBON STEEL

ESAB Welding & Cutting Products (Florence, SC ) recently signed an agreement with MegaStir® (North Provo, UT) giving ESAB exclusive worldwide license to manufacture and distribute friction stir welding machines using MegaStir's technology for ferrous alloys, non-ferrous alloys, metal matrix composites and superalloys. This agreement also gives ESAB worldwide distribution rights, except in certain countries, to distribute MegaStir-branded tools.

Friction stir welding is a solid-state joining process that provides many advantages over typical arc welding processes, including lower total heat input and the elimination of solidification defects associated with arc welding. Because melting does not occur in friction stir welding and joining takes place below the melting temperature of the material, a wrought equiaxed grain structure is produced, creating a high-quality weld.

Friction stir welding has previously been limited to low melting temperature materials such as aluminum, brass and copper. MegaStir's technology now expands friction stir welding to higher melting temperature such as ferritic steels, stainless and duplex stainless steels, and nickel base alloys by use of tools made from polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN), polycrystalline diamond (PCD), and abrasive materials such as metal matrix composites (MMC).

"ESAB is very excited to be able to help expand the commercialization of MegaStir's technology worldwide," said Jeff Hoffart, Sr. Vice President & General Manager, Equipment, Cutting & Steel Industry Products, ESAB Welding & Cutting Products ? North America. "We believe this disruptive technology will change the face of high production welding, enabling companies to create high productivity welds with exceptional strength and quality, with little or no post process clean up. Friction stir welding also does not require filler metals or shield gases and will help manufacturers meet worldwide environmental regulatory standards."

MegaStir is a strategic alliance between SII MEGADIAMOND, Inc., a business unit of Smith International, Inc., located in North Provo, and Advanced Metal Products, Inc., located in West Bountiful, UT.

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ESAB Welding & Cutting Products, 411 S. Ebenezer Road, Florence, SC 29501, 843-669-4411, Fax: 843-664-4258, www.esabna.com.