Jan 30 2009
Bodycote’s Cambridge (UK) facility, part of the Heat Treatment & Metal Joining division, has been awarded Nadcap accreditation for its Electron Beam Welding (EBW) operations.
Electron Beam Welding is a specialist metal joining technique used to create high integrity joints with minimal distortion. EBW fully fuses two parts using only parent metal; hence no need for filler metal, and the risk of non-fused joints becoming stress raisers is eliminated. The welding is carried out in a vacuum so that the weld zone can be considered as ‘vacuum re-cast’.
Compared to alternative joining processes, EBW is characteristically a very efficient process as demonstrated by high weld depth to width ratios, consequently resulting in minimum heat inputs for any given depth of weld gaining minimal distortion.
The Cambridge plant already carries Nadcap approval for heat treatments, as well as AS 9100 and Rolls-Royce RPS 388, and complements Bodycote’s Skelmersdale heat treatment and metal joining facility, which is also Nadcap accredited for heat treatments and EBW.
Working together, the Cambridge and Skelmersdale plants are able to offer the aerospace sector quality approved processing to the most exacting of standards, with equipment which can process a wide range of component sizes.