Advanced Welding Technology for Metal Fabric

Many advanced systems require flexible, high-strength structural materials capable of operating at environmental temperatures up to 2000 deg F in order to efficiently perform the required system missions. This is especially true of inflatable, pressure stabilized structures for space and reentry applications, and non-flammable components and systems for manned space flight. Highly efficient metal fabrics have been developed to satisfy these material requirements but no efficient method of joining these materials into flexible structural configuration was available until a unique automatic spotwelder for producing flexible joints in fabrics was developed. The work reported herein explored the capabilities of this joining technique for application to a wide variety of nickel-chrome structural fabric styles, and is probably equally as efficient for fabrics woven from other steel alloys. Good, flexible, structural joint properties were found up to the 1000 deg F limit of the test temperatures.