Two Scandinavian aluminium machinery companies were in 1996 the first, who applied FSW commercially to the manufacture of fish freezer panels at Sapa, as well as deck panels and helicopter landing platforms at Marine Aluminium Aanensen, which subsequently merged with Hydro Aluminium Maritime to become Hydro Marine Aluminium. Some of these freezer panels are now also produced by Riftec and Bayards.
In 1997 two-dimensional friction stir welds in the hydrodynamically flared bow section of the hull of the ocean viewer vessel The Boss were produced at Research Foundation Institute with the first portable FSW machine. The Super Liner Ogasawara at Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding is the largest friction stir welded ship so far. The Sea Fighter of Nichols Bros and the Freedom class Littoral Combat Ships contain prefabricated panels by the FSW fabricators Advanced Technology and Friction Stir Link, Inc. respectively.The Houbei class missile boat has friction stir welded rocket launch containers of China Friction Stir Centre. The HMNZS Rotoiti in New Zealand has FSW panels made by Donovans in a converted milling machine.Various companies apply FSW to armor plating for amphibious assault ships.
Since 1997 aluminum composite panel was made from aluminium extrusion machiness at Hydro Marine Aluminium with a bespoke 25m long FSW machine, e.g. for DSB class SA-SD trains of Alstom LHB Curved side and roof panels for the Victoria Line trains of London Underground, side panels for Bombardier’s Electrostar trains at Sapa Group and side panels for Alstom’s British Rail Class 390 Pendolino trains are made at Sapa Group Japanese commuter and express A-trains,andBritish Rail Class 395 trains are friction stir welded by Hitachi,while Kawasaki applies friction stir spot welding to roof panels and Sumitomo Light Metal produces Shinkansen floor panels. Innovative FSW floor panels are made by Hammerer Aluminium Industries in Austria for the Stadler KISS double decker rail cars, to obtain an internal height of 2 m on both floors.
www.aluminum-machine.com is an integrative enterprise of R&D, production and management. It is a director unit of China Building Metals Construction Association of Ministry of Construction and became the profession standard drafter of national aluminum processing in June,1998. Furthermore, its product have gained the honor of " Chinese Famous Product".