Dear Mister, Madam,

I am a scientific researcher for the Belgian Welding Institute
and we have currently a project running on friction welding.
The aim is to build a computer model of the friction welding process.
With this model we should be able to predict the welding time,
the pressures to be applied, the rotation speed, ... in order to obtain
good welds. We have a Thompson friction welding machine, which
we are preparing to conduct experiments. The results of these
experiments will be used to improve our model of the welding process.
The next step in our project is to control the machine by computer,
using the data from the computer model. We already have some
nice results but we still have some problems with determining
the physical properties at high temperatures, such as the
friction coefficients.
My question to you is, where I could find more information
about the physical properties of steels at high temperatures.
The steel we are using now is a stainless steel AISI 304.
Especially the friction coefficients at high temperatures are data
which are hard to find.

I would be very pleased if you could provide me more information
on these topics.

Looking forward to your reply,

Best regards,

Koen Faes
Belgian Welding Institute
Sint Pietersnieuwstraat 41
9000 Gent - Belgium
Tel. (+32) 9 264 32 38
Fax. (+32) 9 223 73 26
E mail : [email protected]