CA1339686C - Current conductor and a method for the production thereof - Google Patents
Current conductor and a method for the production thereofInfo
- Publication number
- CA1339686C CA1339686C CA 602781 CA602781A CA1339686C CA 1339686 C CA1339686 C CA 1339686C CA 602781 CA602781 CA 602781 CA 602781 A CA602781 A CA 602781A CA 1339686 C CA1339686 C CA 1339686C
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- Prior art keywords
- rod
- bodies
- tubular body
- metallic
- contact piece
- Prior art date
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method of forming a joint of high electrical conductivity between a metallic contact piece (17) and a metallic form part (12) comprising a groove (16) or a recess. In order that a firm joint with good electrical conductivity could be provided between the contact piece and the form part, the method according to the invention is mainly characterized in that the contact piece is a tubular body (17) attached to the form part (12) by friction welding, whereby the tubular body is rotated about its longitudinal axis while the form part is pressed against the outer surface of the tubular body so that the tubular body is welded to the groove (16) or recess of the form part due to the heat of friction. The invention is also concerned with a current conduction to be used in the electro-chemical purification of metals. The current conductor comprises a rodlike conducting body (12, 12') of an aluminium-based material of high electrical conductivity and comprising a groove (16) or recess, a contact piece (15, 15') of copper being welded to the rodlike conducting body.
Description
13~968b A current conductor and a method for the production thereof The invention relates to a method of forming a joint of high electrical conductivity between a metal-lic contact piece and a metallic form part comprising a groove or a recess. Nore particularly, the invention relates to the production of current conductors used in the electro-chemical purification of metals. The invention i8 also concerned with a current conductor to be used in the electro-chemical purification of me-tals, comprising a rodlike conducting body made of an aluminium-based material of high electrical conduc-tivity and comprising a groove or a recess, a contact piece of copper being welded to the rodlike conducting body. As used in this connection, the term "form part~
refers generally to products of predeter~ined shape inte~eA for further processing.
In certain technical structures, it is import-ant that the contact piece can be fastened to the form part with the groove or recess in such a manner that an electrically conductive joint is formed between the contact piece and the form part. The attachment can be carried out by soldering, welding, riveting, etc. The way of attachment is often determined by the material of the contact piece and the form part: soldering iB
preferred in many cases, e.g., when joining two pieces of precious metals, whereas it is not suitable for joining aluminium to copper, for instance. As to the electrical conductivity and the firmness of the joint, other prior art methods are often so unreliable that instead of forming a joint the desired product i8 manufactured in one piece in spite of the possible high cost of manufacture, which is a ma~or drawback when the product to be manufactured is large and .. ~
1339~86 liable to wear in use. Alternatively, the product can be made in two (or more) pieces, and the ~oint is shaped and positioned so that it can be formed easily. This solution, too, is expensive to carry out if the product is large and has to be replaced regu-larly.
Problems of this kind occur, for instance, in the production of current conductors to be used in the electro-chemical purification of metals. The electro-chemical purification of metals is carried out in large basins cont~i n ing electrolyte suited for the me-tal to be purified. Anode and cathode electrodes are provided in the basin in an alternate manner at a dis-tance from each other. The cathode electrodes are formed by rods of high electrical conductivity or the like current conductors, whereto a cathode plate it attached. The rods also support the cathode plates in the basin. The cathode electrodes are electrically connected with each other by means of electrically conductive conductor rails called busbars on which the current conductors rest detachably. The anode elec-trodes are similarly connected with each other by means of a busbar. In the purification process, cur-rent is usually supplied to the electrode acting as an anode, so that the it passes from the anode through the electrolyte to the electrode acting as a cathode, performing the purification of the metal between the electrodes, that is, transporting particles of the metal to be purified on to the cathode plate where a pure metal deposit is formed. The current passes on through the electrolyte from the cathode to the anode of a subsequent basin, etc. The rodlike current con-ductors used in cathodes and possibly in anodes, too, are large: more than one meter in length. For the economy of the process, the current conductors should 1~9to8~
have a high electrical conductivity. Moreover, good contact and high electrical conductivity are required at points where the current conductors are inter-connected electrically, that is, rest detachably on the busbar. If the electrical conductivity between the current conductor and the busbar is poor, the electro-chemical purification process takes places deficiently or is not at all possible. Aluminium, one of the most usual metal material used in current conductors, has a tendency to gather an oxide layer of poor electrical conductivity on its surface. Therefore the busbar i8 usually made of copper and a contact piece of copper is provided at that end of the current conductor which is to make contact with the busbar. This contact piece is positioned against the busbar in use.
The cathode plates are often made of aluminium, so that a current conductor made of aluminium is easy to attach to them by welding. The contact piece to be attached to the current conductor iB made of copper.
This is advantageous in that the electrode can for a major part be made of alll~inium, which is relatively inexpensive as compared with copper. Various methods have been applied to attach the contact piece of cop-per to the aluminium conductor, such as explosive welding, pressure welding, electron beam welding, laser welding, etc. All these method have certain drawbacks: oxide layers may remain between the ~oint surfaces, the resultant ~oint may be mech~nically weak, the weld ~oint is difficult to control with re-sultant uneven quality of ~oints especially in press-ure diffusion welding. As a result, the ~oint is liable to cracking or distortion and its electrical conductivity is poor, causing uneven precipitation of the metal to be purified and increased power consump-tion. Explosive welding also has a high noise level.
1 3 ~ 9 ij~
The production of current conductors has been rela-tively expensive partly for the above-mentioned rea-sons and partly for the reason that an ea~y attachment of the contact piece to the aluminium current conduc-tor by traditional methods has required a relativelylarge contact piece. To sum up, the attachment of alu-minium and copper in current conductors has been prob-lematic as well as technically unreliable. Economical-ly, the present invention i8 of great importance when applied in current conductors because the number of cathode electrode~ used in electro-chemical purifica-tion plants amounts to several tholl~An~ and the elec-trodes are liable to wear in u~e, being exposed to corrosive materials used in the precipitation basins.
Another factor decreasing the service life of current conductors i~ the ~parking occurring at the contact point between the bu~bar and the current conductors used in electrodes. Furthermore, mechanical damages during the different process stages decrease the service life of current conductors.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks. According to the invention there is provided a method of forming a joint of high electrical conductivity between the metallic contact piece and the metallic form part by friction welding, in which the contact piece and the form part are pressed against each other and are rotated relative to each other. In one aspect of the invention, a tubular body is used as the contact piece and at least two metallic bodies with a groove or recess are used as the form part.
During the welding, the tubular body is rotated about its longitudinal 30 axis and the metallic bodies are pressed from opposite directions normal against the surface of the rotating tubular body so that the tubular body is welded to the groove or recess of the metallic bodies.
As used in this connection, the term "tubular body" refers to a hollow form part having a uniform cross-section over its entire length 35 and comprising a single hole going therethrough and a wall of a substantially uniform thickness. The cross-section of the tubular body may 13~ 73~3~
be round or regularly polygonal. It is also possible within the inventive idea that the contact piece is a rodlike body. When the method according to the inven-tion is applied in the production of the above-men-tioned current conductors, the tubular body is pre-ferably made of copper and round in shape. Correspond-ingly, the form part is preferably an elongated rod-like body made of an aluminium-based material of high electrical conductivity and comprising a substantially round groove having a radius corresponding to the out-er radius of the tubular body of copper. The current conductor according to the invention is mainly charac-terized in that the contact piece of copper is welded to the groove (16) or recess of the rodlike conducting body by a friction welding method.
The invention is based on the idea that the contact piece is attached to the form part by a fric-tion welding technique known per se, whereby the form part comprises a suitable groove or recess to which the contact piece is welded.
The present invention is advantageous mainly in that joints formed in current conductors by means of it are both firm and have good electrical conductiv-ity, in addition to which the joint can be made easily and rapidly and the raw-material of the current con-ductors can be utilized in an extremely economica~
way. The method is also well suited for industrial series production and can be applied to the joining of materials of very different types. Furthermore, the method makes it possible to produce at least two prod-ucts at a single welding step.
In the following the invention will be de-scribed in more detail with reference to the attached drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a schematical top view of an 1~39686 electro-chemical metal purification basin with its electrodes;
Figure 2 is a side view of a conventional electrode acting as a cathode in the purification basin of Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a top view of the electrode of Fig-ure 2;
Figure 4 is a side view of an electrode acting as a cathode according to the invention in the purifi-cation basin;
Figure 5 is a top view of the electrode of Fig-ure 4;
Figures 6 to 8 illustrate the different oper-ational stages of the method according to the inven-tion;
Figures 9 to 11 illustrate the operationalstages of Figures 6 to 8 from the top; and Figures 12 to 14 illustrate the different oper-ational stages of another embodiment of the method ac-cording to the invention.
Figure 1 is a schematical top view of anelectro-chemical zinc purification basin. The purifi-cation basin is indicated with the reference numeral 1 and it comprises a number of electrodes 2, 3 posi-tioned at a distance from each other. Every otherelectrode is a cathode 2 and every other an anode 3.
The cathodes 2 are interconnected with a conductor rail of copper, a so called busbar, which is indicated with the reference numeral 4. The broken lines show how the purification basins to be used in the electro-chemical purification process are connected with each other. The basin 1, filled with electrolyte cont~ining sulphuric acid, is inte~e~ for the precipitation of zinc from insoluble lead anodes to aluminium cathode plates. The intensity of current between two adjacent 1 3 ~ 9 ~ ~ ~
electrodes 2, 3 is several hundreds of amperes. Each industrial purification basin typically comprise sev-eral tens of electrodes.
~igure 2 is a more detailed, enlarged view of a conventional cathode 2. The cathode 2 comprises a large aluminium plate 6 on the surface of which zinc is deposited during the electro-chemical purification process. The aluminium plate 6 is supported on the edges of the basin 1 by means of a rodlike current conductor indicated generally with the reference nu-meral 7. The current conductor 7 comprises an alu-minium current rod 8 to which the aluminium plate 6 is attached by a weld joint 9. A suitable aluminium ma-terial for the current rod 8 is, e.g., AlMgSiO,5 (98.9% of Al; 0.5% of Si and 0.6% of Mg). A contact piece ~ of copper is attached to one end of the cur-rent rod by explosive welding. The ~oint is indicated with the reference numeral 10. As mentioned above, the joint 10 is difficult to form, and the end result is poor as far as electrical conductivity and firmness in use are concerned.
FigUrQ 3 i8 a top view of the cathode of Figure 2.
Figure 4 shows the solution according to the invention. A current conductor indicated generally with the reference numeral 11 comprises, similarly as the solution of Figure 2, a current rod 12 of AlMgSiO,5, for instance, and an aluminium plate 14 is attached to the current rod with a weld ~oint 13. A
contact piece 15 of copper is attached to one end of the current rod 12. The contact piece 15 is welded by the friction welding technique to a groove or recess 16 provided in the current rod. The contact piece of copper is formed by a longitudinally split tubular body 15 the cross-sectional area of which is sub-133S~
stantially semi-circular. The groove 16 in the current rod 12 is also semi-circular in shape, so that a good and relatively large contact surface can be formed be-tween the split tubular body 15 and the groove, which is advantageous for the achievement of a good end re-sult.
Figure 5 is a top view of the cathode of Figure 4.
The production of the current conductor 11 shown in Figure 4 takes place as illustrated in Fig-ures 6 to 8. A tubular body 17 having a round cross-section and the outer diameter of which is about SO mm and wall thickness 5 to 10 mm is attached to a spindle (not shown) which is caused to rotate. The spindle comprises a flywheel (not shown) with an adjustable mass. The spindle, the rate of rotation of which is ad~ustable, is caused to rotate at a predetermined rate of rotation, whereafter the rotating machinery is turned off and the l~.ovel--ent is continued by the kin-etic energy of the flywheel. Thereafter two rodlikebodies 12 are pressed against the outer surface of the rotating tubular body 17 by means of a hydraulic de-vice (not shown) with a suitable compression pressure from opposite sides in the direction of the arrows, the respective semi-circular groove 16 provided there-in being pressed against the tubular body. The radius of the groove 16 corresponds to the outer radius of the tubular body.
The joint surfaces are heated by the heat of friction occurring between the contact surfaces be-tween the tubular body 17 and the rodlike body 12. Thecontact surfaces melt and the kinetic energy of the flywheel causes a friction weld ~oint to be formed.
The edges of the grooves 16 in the rodlike body 12 are preferably bevelled in order to control the formation 133~86 of burr in connection with the friction welding pro-cess and in order to optimize the distribution of heat. The simultaneous use of two rodlike bodies 12 ~Le~ents the oxidation of the ~oint surfaces, whereby a ~oint free from defects can be formed without the formation of an oxidation layer affecting adversely the properties of the ~oint. In addition, two joint surfaces can be welded at a single step. Figure 7 shows the friction weld ~oint immediately after the welding. The rod-like bodies 12 are separated from each other by cutting the tubular body 17 of copper along the interface between the rodlike bodies, thus obtain-ing two identical rodlike current conductors 11, each comprising a rodlike body provided with one half 15 of the tubular body of copper, or almost one half of it, see Figure 8.
Figures 9 to 11 show the operational stages of Figures 6 to 8 from the top. In Figure 9, the bottom of the groove 16 in the tubular body 12 is indicated with a broken line.
Figures 12 to 14 show another embodiment of the method of the invention as seen from the top. In this particular embodiment of the invention, three pairs of tubular bodies 12' are connected with each other. Fig-ure 12 shows an operational stage corresponding tothat of Figure 9. Ad~acent sides in the tubular bodies 12' are pressed against each other in the direction indicated by the vertical arrows, whereby partition plates 18' are arranged between the surfaces to separ-ate the surfaces apart from each other. The rodlikebodies 12' are pressed against each other throughout the friction welding process. Figure 13 shows the situation immediately after the friction welding simi-larly as in Figure 10. The rodlike bodies 12' are separated from each other by cutting the tubular body X
1~39~i3b 17' in the longitudinal and in the transverse direc-tion. After the cutting, the partition plates 18' come off and three pairs of identical current conductors 11' are obtained. Due to the partition plates 18', the tubular body 17' is easy to cut as described above and the attachment of the tubular body against the respec-tive grooves in the rodlike body 12' can be carried out in such a manner that the burr formation in con-nection with the fraction welding process can be con-trolled more easily and the heat can be distributedevenly during the welding. An advantage of the embodi-ment of Figures 12 to 14 over that of Figures 9 to 11 is the greater production capacity.
The invention has been described above by way of example. In its details, the invention can be mod-ified in various ways within the scope of the attached claims. Accordingly, the shape of the contact piece and that of the rodlike body may vary: the contact piece need not necessarily be round in cross-section, although this shape is to be preferred. It is also possible to form the contact piece of a solid rodlike body instead of a hollow tubular body. It is to be un-derstood that the invention is not restricted to the purification of zinc but is similarly applicable to the electrolytic recovery of nickel or copper, for in-stance. Broadly speaking, the invention has a great variety of applications in which the aim is to provide a firm joint with high electrical conductivity between two pieces of different materials.
refers generally to products of predeter~ined shape inte~eA for further processing.
In certain technical structures, it is import-ant that the contact piece can be fastened to the form part with the groove or recess in such a manner that an electrically conductive joint is formed between the contact piece and the form part. The attachment can be carried out by soldering, welding, riveting, etc. The way of attachment is often determined by the material of the contact piece and the form part: soldering iB
preferred in many cases, e.g., when joining two pieces of precious metals, whereas it is not suitable for joining aluminium to copper, for instance. As to the electrical conductivity and the firmness of the joint, other prior art methods are often so unreliable that instead of forming a joint the desired product i8 manufactured in one piece in spite of the possible high cost of manufacture, which is a ma~or drawback when the product to be manufactured is large and .. ~
1339~86 liable to wear in use. Alternatively, the product can be made in two (or more) pieces, and the ~oint is shaped and positioned so that it can be formed easily. This solution, too, is expensive to carry out if the product is large and has to be replaced regu-larly.
Problems of this kind occur, for instance, in the production of current conductors to be used in the electro-chemical purification of metals. The electro-chemical purification of metals is carried out in large basins cont~i n ing electrolyte suited for the me-tal to be purified. Anode and cathode electrodes are provided in the basin in an alternate manner at a dis-tance from each other. The cathode electrodes are formed by rods of high electrical conductivity or the like current conductors, whereto a cathode plate it attached. The rods also support the cathode plates in the basin. The cathode electrodes are electrically connected with each other by means of electrically conductive conductor rails called busbars on which the current conductors rest detachably. The anode elec-trodes are similarly connected with each other by means of a busbar. In the purification process, cur-rent is usually supplied to the electrode acting as an anode, so that the it passes from the anode through the electrolyte to the electrode acting as a cathode, performing the purification of the metal between the electrodes, that is, transporting particles of the metal to be purified on to the cathode plate where a pure metal deposit is formed. The current passes on through the electrolyte from the cathode to the anode of a subsequent basin, etc. The rodlike current con-ductors used in cathodes and possibly in anodes, too, are large: more than one meter in length. For the economy of the process, the current conductors should 1~9to8~
have a high electrical conductivity. Moreover, good contact and high electrical conductivity are required at points where the current conductors are inter-connected electrically, that is, rest detachably on the busbar. If the electrical conductivity between the current conductor and the busbar is poor, the electro-chemical purification process takes places deficiently or is not at all possible. Aluminium, one of the most usual metal material used in current conductors, has a tendency to gather an oxide layer of poor electrical conductivity on its surface. Therefore the busbar i8 usually made of copper and a contact piece of copper is provided at that end of the current conductor which is to make contact with the busbar. This contact piece is positioned against the busbar in use.
The cathode plates are often made of aluminium, so that a current conductor made of aluminium is easy to attach to them by welding. The contact piece to be attached to the current conductor iB made of copper.
This is advantageous in that the electrode can for a major part be made of alll~inium, which is relatively inexpensive as compared with copper. Various methods have been applied to attach the contact piece of cop-per to the aluminium conductor, such as explosive welding, pressure welding, electron beam welding, laser welding, etc. All these method have certain drawbacks: oxide layers may remain between the ~oint surfaces, the resultant ~oint may be mech~nically weak, the weld ~oint is difficult to control with re-sultant uneven quality of ~oints especially in press-ure diffusion welding. As a result, the ~oint is liable to cracking or distortion and its electrical conductivity is poor, causing uneven precipitation of the metal to be purified and increased power consump-tion. Explosive welding also has a high noise level.
1 3 ~ 9 ij~
The production of current conductors has been rela-tively expensive partly for the above-mentioned rea-sons and partly for the reason that an ea~y attachment of the contact piece to the aluminium current conduc-tor by traditional methods has required a relativelylarge contact piece. To sum up, the attachment of alu-minium and copper in current conductors has been prob-lematic as well as technically unreliable. Economical-ly, the present invention i8 of great importance when applied in current conductors because the number of cathode electrode~ used in electro-chemical purifica-tion plants amounts to several tholl~An~ and the elec-trodes are liable to wear in u~e, being exposed to corrosive materials used in the precipitation basins.
Another factor decreasing the service life of current conductors i~ the ~parking occurring at the contact point between the bu~bar and the current conductors used in electrodes. Furthermore, mechanical damages during the different process stages decrease the service life of current conductors.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks. According to the invention there is provided a method of forming a joint of high electrical conductivity between the metallic contact piece and the metallic form part by friction welding, in which the contact piece and the form part are pressed against each other and are rotated relative to each other. In one aspect of the invention, a tubular body is used as the contact piece and at least two metallic bodies with a groove or recess are used as the form part.
During the welding, the tubular body is rotated about its longitudinal 30 axis and the metallic bodies are pressed from opposite directions normal against the surface of the rotating tubular body so that the tubular body is welded to the groove or recess of the metallic bodies.
As used in this connection, the term "tubular body" refers to a hollow form part having a uniform cross-section over its entire length 35 and comprising a single hole going therethrough and a wall of a substantially uniform thickness. The cross-section of the tubular body may 13~ 73~3~
be round or regularly polygonal. It is also possible within the inventive idea that the contact piece is a rodlike body. When the method according to the inven-tion is applied in the production of the above-men-tioned current conductors, the tubular body is pre-ferably made of copper and round in shape. Correspond-ingly, the form part is preferably an elongated rod-like body made of an aluminium-based material of high electrical conductivity and comprising a substantially round groove having a radius corresponding to the out-er radius of the tubular body of copper. The current conductor according to the invention is mainly charac-terized in that the contact piece of copper is welded to the groove (16) or recess of the rodlike conducting body by a friction welding method.
The invention is based on the idea that the contact piece is attached to the form part by a fric-tion welding technique known per se, whereby the form part comprises a suitable groove or recess to which the contact piece is welded.
The present invention is advantageous mainly in that joints formed in current conductors by means of it are both firm and have good electrical conductiv-ity, in addition to which the joint can be made easily and rapidly and the raw-material of the current con-ductors can be utilized in an extremely economica~
way. The method is also well suited for industrial series production and can be applied to the joining of materials of very different types. Furthermore, the method makes it possible to produce at least two prod-ucts at a single welding step.
In the following the invention will be de-scribed in more detail with reference to the attached drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a schematical top view of an 1~39686 electro-chemical metal purification basin with its electrodes;
Figure 2 is a side view of a conventional electrode acting as a cathode in the purification basin of Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a top view of the electrode of Fig-ure 2;
Figure 4 is a side view of an electrode acting as a cathode according to the invention in the purifi-cation basin;
Figure 5 is a top view of the electrode of Fig-ure 4;
Figures 6 to 8 illustrate the different oper-ational stages of the method according to the inven-tion;
Figures 9 to 11 illustrate the operationalstages of Figures 6 to 8 from the top; and Figures 12 to 14 illustrate the different oper-ational stages of another embodiment of the method ac-cording to the invention.
Figure 1 is a schematical top view of anelectro-chemical zinc purification basin. The purifi-cation basin is indicated with the reference numeral 1 and it comprises a number of electrodes 2, 3 posi-tioned at a distance from each other. Every otherelectrode is a cathode 2 and every other an anode 3.
The cathodes 2 are interconnected with a conductor rail of copper, a so called busbar, which is indicated with the reference numeral 4. The broken lines show how the purification basins to be used in the electro-chemical purification process are connected with each other. The basin 1, filled with electrolyte cont~ining sulphuric acid, is inte~e~ for the precipitation of zinc from insoluble lead anodes to aluminium cathode plates. The intensity of current between two adjacent 1 3 ~ 9 ~ ~ ~
electrodes 2, 3 is several hundreds of amperes. Each industrial purification basin typically comprise sev-eral tens of electrodes.
~igure 2 is a more detailed, enlarged view of a conventional cathode 2. The cathode 2 comprises a large aluminium plate 6 on the surface of which zinc is deposited during the electro-chemical purification process. The aluminium plate 6 is supported on the edges of the basin 1 by means of a rodlike current conductor indicated generally with the reference nu-meral 7. The current conductor 7 comprises an alu-minium current rod 8 to which the aluminium plate 6 is attached by a weld joint 9. A suitable aluminium ma-terial for the current rod 8 is, e.g., AlMgSiO,5 (98.9% of Al; 0.5% of Si and 0.6% of Mg). A contact piece ~ of copper is attached to one end of the cur-rent rod by explosive welding. The ~oint is indicated with the reference numeral 10. As mentioned above, the joint 10 is difficult to form, and the end result is poor as far as electrical conductivity and firmness in use are concerned.
FigUrQ 3 i8 a top view of the cathode of Figure 2.
Figure 4 shows the solution according to the invention. A current conductor indicated generally with the reference numeral 11 comprises, similarly as the solution of Figure 2, a current rod 12 of AlMgSiO,5, for instance, and an aluminium plate 14 is attached to the current rod with a weld ~oint 13. A
contact piece 15 of copper is attached to one end of the current rod 12. The contact piece 15 is welded by the friction welding technique to a groove or recess 16 provided in the current rod. The contact piece of copper is formed by a longitudinally split tubular body 15 the cross-sectional area of which is sub-133S~
stantially semi-circular. The groove 16 in the current rod 12 is also semi-circular in shape, so that a good and relatively large contact surface can be formed be-tween the split tubular body 15 and the groove, which is advantageous for the achievement of a good end re-sult.
Figure 5 is a top view of the cathode of Figure 4.
The production of the current conductor 11 shown in Figure 4 takes place as illustrated in Fig-ures 6 to 8. A tubular body 17 having a round cross-section and the outer diameter of which is about SO mm and wall thickness 5 to 10 mm is attached to a spindle (not shown) which is caused to rotate. The spindle comprises a flywheel (not shown) with an adjustable mass. The spindle, the rate of rotation of which is ad~ustable, is caused to rotate at a predetermined rate of rotation, whereafter the rotating machinery is turned off and the l~.ovel--ent is continued by the kin-etic energy of the flywheel. Thereafter two rodlikebodies 12 are pressed against the outer surface of the rotating tubular body 17 by means of a hydraulic de-vice (not shown) with a suitable compression pressure from opposite sides in the direction of the arrows, the respective semi-circular groove 16 provided there-in being pressed against the tubular body. The radius of the groove 16 corresponds to the outer radius of the tubular body.
The joint surfaces are heated by the heat of friction occurring between the contact surfaces be-tween the tubular body 17 and the rodlike body 12. Thecontact surfaces melt and the kinetic energy of the flywheel causes a friction weld ~oint to be formed.
The edges of the grooves 16 in the rodlike body 12 are preferably bevelled in order to control the formation 133~86 of burr in connection with the friction welding pro-cess and in order to optimize the distribution of heat. The simultaneous use of two rodlike bodies 12 ~Le~ents the oxidation of the ~oint surfaces, whereby a ~oint free from defects can be formed without the formation of an oxidation layer affecting adversely the properties of the ~oint. In addition, two joint surfaces can be welded at a single step. Figure 7 shows the friction weld ~oint immediately after the welding. The rod-like bodies 12 are separated from each other by cutting the tubular body 17 of copper along the interface between the rodlike bodies, thus obtain-ing two identical rodlike current conductors 11, each comprising a rodlike body provided with one half 15 of the tubular body of copper, or almost one half of it, see Figure 8.
Figures 9 to 11 show the operational stages of Figures 6 to 8 from the top. In Figure 9, the bottom of the groove 16 in the tubular body 12 is indicated with a broken line.
Figures 12 to 14 show another embodiment of the method of the invention as seen from the top. In this particular embodiment of the invention, three pairs of tubular bodies 12' are connected with each other. Fig-ure 12 shows an operational stage corresponding tothat of Figure 9. Ad~acent sides in the tubular bodies 12' are pressed against each other in the direction indicated by the vertical arrows, whereby partition plates 18' are arranged between the surfaces to separ-ate the surfaces apart from each other. The rodlikebodies 12' are pressed against each other throughout the friction welding process. Figure 13 shows the situation immediately after the friction welding simi-larly as in Figure 10. The rodlike bodies 12' are separated from each other by cutting the tubular body X
1~39~i3b 17' in the longitudinal and in the transverse direc-tion. After the cutting, the partition plates 18' come off and three pairs of identical current conductors 11' are obtained. Due to the partition plates 18', the tubular body 17' is easy to cut as described above and the attachment of the tubular body against the respec-tive grooves in the rodlike body 12' can be carried out in such a manner that the burr formation in con-nection with the fraction welding process can be con-trolled more easily and the heat can be distributedevenly during the welding. An advantage of the embodi-ment of Figures 12 to 14 over that of Figures 9 to 11 is the greater production capacity.
The invention has been described above by way of example. In its details, the invention can be mod-ified in various ways within the scope of the attached claims. Accordingly, the shape of the contact piece and that of the rodlike body may vary: the contact piece need not necessarily be round in cross-section, although this shape is to be preferred. It is also possible to form the contact piece of a solid rodlike body instead of a hollow tubular body. It is to be un-derstood that the invention is not restricted to the purification of zinc but is similarly applicable to the electrolytic recovery of nickel or copper, for in-stance. Broadly speaking, the invention has a great variety of applications in which the aim is to provide a firm joint with high electrical conductivity between two pieces of different materials.
Claims (4)
1. A method of forming a joint of high electrical conductivity between a metallic contact piece (17, 17') and a metallic form part (12, 12') by friction welding, characterized in that a tubular body (17, 17') is used as said contact piece and at least one pair of metallic bodies (12, 12') each with a groove (16)or recess are used as said form part, and in that the method comprises the steps of: rotating the tubular body about its longitudinal axis; pressing the metallic bodies from opposite directions normal to and against the surface of the rotating tubular body so that the tubular body is welded to the groove (16) or recess of each metallic body; and subsequently cutting the tubular body in the direction of said longitudinal axis to separate said metallic bodies.
2. A method according to claim 1 for the production of current conductors (11,11') to be used in the electro-chemical purification of metals, characterized in that the tubular body is a tubular body (17, 17') made of copper and having a round cross-section, and the metallic bodies are elongated rod-like bodies (12, 12') of an aluminum-based material of high electrical conductivity, a substantially round groove (16) having a radius corresponding to the outer radius of the tubular body of copper being formed in the rod-like bodies, whereby the rod-like bodies are separated from each other after the welding by cutting the tubular body of copper along the interface between the rod-like bodies in such a manner that the number of current conductors (11,11') so obtained equals to that of the rod-like bodies, each current conductor comprising a rod-like body and a portion (15, 15') of the tubular body of copper.
3. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that the friction welding is carried out by pressing at least two pairs of rod-like bodies (12') against the tubular body (17') of copper simultaneously from opposite sides, and in that partition plates (18') are provided between the rod-like bodies so as to space them from each other for facilitating cutting when the rod-like bodies are separated from each other.
4. A method of forming a joint of high electrical conductivity between a metallic contact piece (17,17') and a metallic form part (12,12') by friction welding, characterized in that a rod-like body (17, 17') is used as said contact piece and at least one pair of metalic bodies (12, 12') each with a groove (16) or recess corresponding in shape to the shape of the surface of the rod-like body (17, 17') are used as said form part, and in that the method comprises the steps of: rotating the rod-like body about its longitudinal axis; pressing the metallic bodies from opposite directions normal to and against the surface of the rotating rod-like body so that the rod-like body is welded to the groove (16) or recess of each metallic body; and subsequently cutting the rod-like body (17, 17') in the direction of said longitudinal axis to separate said metallic bodies.
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| FI882820A FI882820A (en) | 1988-06-14 | 1988-06-14 | TILLVERKNING AV EN TRANSVERSAL TUB-PLAOTFOGNING GENOM FRIKTIONSSVETSNING. |
| FI882820 | 1988-06-14 | ||
| FI885941 | 1988-12-22 | ||
| FI885941A FI84033C (en) | 1988-06-14 | 1988-12-22 | Method of providing a good conductivity showing joint by friction welding and current conductor |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1339686C true CA1339686C (en) | 1998-02-24 |
Family
ID=26158370
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 602781 Expired - Fee Related CA1339686C (en) | 1988-06-14 | 1989-06-14 | Current conductor and a method for the production thereof |
Country Status (2)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1339686C (en) |
| FI (1) | FI84033C (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN104722913A (en) * | 2015-03-05 | 2015-06-24 | 云南大泽电极科技有限公司 | Stirring friction welding machining method of negative electrode plate |
-
1988
- 1988-12-22 FI FI885941A patent/FI84033C/en not_active IP Right Cessation
-
1989
- 1989-06-14 CA CA 602781 patent/CA1339686C/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN104722913A (en) * | 2015-03-05 | 2015-06-24 | 云南大泽电极科技有限公司 | Stirring friction welding machining method of negative electrode plate |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| FI84033B (en) | 1991-06-28 |
| FI84033C (en) | 1991-10-10 |
| FI885941A (en) | 1989-12-15 |
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| Date | Code | Title | Description |
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| MKLA | Lapsed |