The seminar was a total success, both in the number of attendees and in the actual program. Berkoa S. Coop. achieved its goals for the seminar:
- On the one hand, to introduce to companies that do not know this technology the different possibilities for the market and the manufacturing processes.
- To companies that already know it and use it, on the other hand, to propose a different vision for their daily work by incorporating the friction philosophy, explaining all the parameters involved. In this way, solutions were found to real problems that some of the participants were having.
After the initial presentations by Luis Lascurain, Managing Director of BERKOA, S.COOP., and by Jose Mari Goenega, Commercial and Marketing Director of IK4-LORTEK, the seminar moved onto the rest of the speakers:
- On behalf of BERKOA, S.COOP, German Fritzche, Electronic Engineer specialised on control systems with 40-year experience on rotary friction and Magnetarc welding.
- On behalf of IK4-LORTEK, Egoitz Aldanondo, Industrial Engineer, International Welding Engineer, and Master of Science, with experience in friction welding technologies.
The session was distributed in parts so as to explain everything related to this technology:
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- General welding information: different types of joints, microstructures, temperatures and materials.
- Advantages and disadvantages of rotary friction welding.
- Different types of rotary friction welding.
- Process, graphics and curves.
- Parameters and calculation.
- Controllers.
- Quality assurance and control. Traceability.
- Destructive and non-destructive testing.
- Use cases.
- Videos showing BERKOA machines functioning in real-life conditions.
Both during the coffee break and the final lunch, interesting discussions were held among the attendees, explaining their experiences, problems and solutions. The venue itself was fitting and special, the Museo de la Máquina Herramienta. All participants liked it and enjoyed the machine exhibition held there.
After lunch, all attendees went to the BERKOA, S.COOP facilities, where they could see close-up a two-station, 30 t rotary friction welder and the whole automatic system for part feeding/discharge.