Esab Selected to Support Fabrication of NASA's Next-Generation Fuel Tank

Friction stir welding is the process of choice selected to weld the main fuel tank of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS), and providing the welding technology to NASA and its contractor Boeing is the Esab facility in Laxa, Sweden. Esab, with North American operations headquartered in Florence, SC, will construct a giant orbital-welding system (dubbed Vertical Assembly Center) to circumferentially weld fuel-tank sections together using the friction-stir process. The SLS project, America’s next-generation space program, is slated for launch in 2017.

See also: ESAB Welding & Cutting

Technologies: Welding and Joining

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