cold welding

Cold welding or contact welding is a solid-state welding process in which joining takes place without fusion or heating at the interface of the two parts to be welded. Unlike in fusion welding, no liquid or molten phase is present in the joint.

Cold welding was first recognized as a general materials phenomenon in the 1940s. It was then discovered that two clean, flat surfaces of similar metal would strongly adhere if brought into contact while in a vacuum (see Van der Waals force). Newly discovered micro- and nano-scale cold welding has shown potential in nanofabrication processes.

Cold welding is common in jointing solid copper wires. Wire heads are put in claws and pressed together. This process is repeated until the joint is solid. Small wires can be jointed with hand-held manual welders while larger wires require hydraulic welders. The joint is firmer than basic wire.

Applications include wire stock and electrical connections (such as insulation-displacement connectors and wire wrap connections).

In space

Mechanical problems in early satellites were sometimes attributed to cold welding.

In 2009 the European Space Agency published a peer reviewed paper detailing why cold welding is a significant issue that spacecraft designers need to carefully consider. The paper also cites a documented example from 1991 with the Galileo spacecraft high-gain antenna.

One source of difficulty is that cold welding does not exclude relative motion between the surfaces that are to be joined. This allows the broadly defined notions of galling, fretting, stiction and adhesion to overlap in some instances. For example, it is possible for a joint to be the result of both cold (or "vacuum") welding and galling (or fretting or impact). Galling and cold welding, therefore, are not mutually exclusive.

Nanoscale

Unlike cold welding process at macro-scale which normally requires large applied pressures, scientists discovered that single-crystalline ultrathin gold nanowires (diameters less than 10 nm) can be cold-welded together within seconds by mechanical contact alone, and under remarkably low applied pressures. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and in-situ measurements reveal that the welds are nearly perfect, with the same crystal orientation, strength and electrical conductivity as the rest of the nanowire. The high quality of the welds is attributed to the nanoscale sample dimensions, oriented-attachment mechanisms and mechanically assisted fast surface diffusion. Nanoscale welds were also demonstrated between gold and silver, and silver and silver, indicating that the phenomenon may be generally applicable and therefore offer an atomistic view of the initial stages of macroscopic cold welding for either bulk metals or metallic thin film.

See also

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References

Further reading

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External links

* {{Wikisource-inline, Advanced Automation for Space Missions/Appendix 4C

Welding