SOUTH BEND — It's 20 feet tall, weighs about 400,000 pounds and is now moving down the highway from South Bend to Connecticut — it's the world's largest friction welding machine. The gargantuan piece of equipment is the newest addition to local Manufacturing Technology Inc.'s product line, which was sent on its way Friday morning.
The superload is traveling on a 200-foot-long, 19-axle transporter, the largest ground shipping vehicle available in the world, and is expected to arrive at its destination May 20. MTI, which specializes in high-tech welding equipment for manufacturers, won the bid from Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace company, about three years ago. It's taken this long to build the monster.
Pratt & Whitney will use the new machinery to friction weld large diameter precision, critical aircraft engine components at its jet engine manufacturing plant, according to a press release.
Producing the friction welding machine, though, was a big risk for MTI. A risk not everyone at the company was willing to pursue, said Don Adams, MTI co-owner and chief technology officer. It was a market much bigger companies were getting out of, and failing could sink MTI. They spent $2 million on research and development just on the chance to win the bid, he said.
"At the end of the day, was it risky? Yes, it was risky. … This machine put all kinds of fear of God in people," Doug Wait, MTI chief operating officer, said. "Did this group grow because of that risk? Yes we did."
It was the ambition and vision MTI has as a small company, Adams said, that drove them to success. He said bigger companies didn't have the stomach for the risk and couldn't see ongoing potential for sales.