I just got assigned my project for the rest of the semester and I am excited! It's a metallurgy of welding class, my project is explosive bonding, looking at different amounts and types of ANFO, and other aspects of geometry and surfaces. Should pretty sweet, I will try to get pics of the shots and micrographs of the welds.

 

Saw a segment on "Modern Marvels" the other day that showed explosive bonding. I've been around a while and had never heard of it. Pretty amazing.

Dan

 

I've come across this before , the neat part is , using explosives & making something at the same time .

 

Exactly, blow stuff up AND be productive.

 

I was reading an article about this in a welding journal. Forged steel tie down ring with aluminum bonded around it so it could be welded in the deck of an aircraft carrier for aircraft tie down.
Pretty neat stuff.

 

That's a neat app, we're doing copper and steel, the waves it makes are amazing.

 

How does this process work? Sounds like a really fun job!

 

Heat and or pressure weld metals , here you are using both , to force two pieces to fuse/tin together .

 

But how though? Is it strapping dynamite to one metal and putting another close by? I figure it's a whole lot more precise than that, but how much control can you have over an explosion? This stuff sounds cool. I'm just trying to learn.

 

I saw that to. cooler-n-hell

 

Its a mater of just the right amount of explosive placed in the right place with the metals to be joined , enough to heat up [ melt ] but not blow through .
Ever use a welding tip , on thin metal & blow through , thats the same thing just a lot faster , one of the 1st thing in the blaster hand book is with relation to what we are calling explosives , they do not really explode , just burn fast , and some of the differences between them is " rate of burn " , stability , & cost for large scale use .
Also with reloading ammo ," rate of burn " , if you try to use pistol powder in a rifle , you'll blow up the rifle .

 

You are not talking bout this are you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6K9...elated&search=
I also saw that Modern Marvels, just tried to find it on their site with no luck.

 

We are using 12''x12''x .125'' plates, they are set apart a certain distance, and explosive is set on the other side, boom, blows one plate into the other, it's considered a solid state process, no melting involved, such high pressures it behaves like a fluid. We use ANFO, about 5% fuel oil, and experimenting on additives to the mix to control burn rate.

 

No, that's thermit(e) welding, starting a reaction of aluminum and iron oxide(normally, it can be other pairs, but most is aluminothermic), it burns really hot, flows molten metal (varied compositions). it's a mix of welding and casting sort of, my buddy is doing his masters in thermite welding, working on getting specific alloy compositions of steel.

The explosive bonding is an actual explosion, like we go hide behind some barriers and it goes BOOM!

 

I have heard they can use this to repair cracked railroad rails. Not sure if it is true, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.