Pressing and welding a bearing cage - GIF

Pressing and welding a bearing cage.

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Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...464#post225102
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...429#post127412
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...269#post150201
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...713#post123843
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...716#post216461

That is one beautiful bearing. I really like the spot weld meets hot rivet process for securing the cage. I've never seen that before.

Those kinds of clips always get my imagination going... "What is that going to be a part of?", "What amazing machines and processes came before this one that we see"?, and so many more...

That was not welding, for one thing there were no sparks. Looks more like soldering possible brazing. Needless to say a nice operation and a great bearing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ralphxyz

That was not welding, for one thing there were no sparks. Looks more like soldering possible brazing. Needless to say a nice operation and a great bearing.

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If the contact is really good a spot welder won't produce a spark. The video above has a machine that drives the contacts down into the material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9saFkGOi1IU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjpuufjrCis

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ralphxyz

That was not welding, for one thing there were no sparks. Looks more like soldering possible brazing. Needless to say a nice operation and a great bearing.

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Brazing and soldering both require a metal different than the base metal added to the joint. That is not present in this operation.

As mentioned above, resistance welding does not produce sparks when done correctly.

One other possibility is pressure “deforming” like riveting. But my vote is resistance heating with pressure deformation similar to hot rivets.

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