Talk:Ultrasonic welding

Pictures

I reworked the history section, but this article is still seriously lacking pictures. If someone would add some it would be much appreciated.Marylee23 (talk) 14:30, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

History and Pictures

The reference article for "the first ultrasonic welded car" is unverifiable. A car is never mentioned in that article. I was never able to find a reference to a vehicle made entirely out of ultrasonic plastic welding. I was hoping someone would be able to help me flush out the history section and maybe add some pictures. Let me know what you think.--Marylee23 01:28, 5 March 2008

The earliest reference I can find from the US Patent Office is Patent #2891180 issued in June 1959. The patent shows the original design, and confirm that this was indeed awarded to Aeroprojects (now Sonobond). I can't confirm if there were designs before this or if something like this existed in another country, but the above listed patent is the earliest I could find. There are some pictures in this patent as well, but I would suggest using more recent ultrasonic welding device patents for a picture. I actually have a picture of the process in my manufacturing textbook, but I don't know if it would be legal to scan that in or what. 128.180.77.6 (talk) 03:12, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately scanning images is illegal unless it was printed before 1923 in the US. Same goes for patents. I've got an ultrasonic press here at work that I can try and take a picture of when I get a chance. Wizard191 (talk) 12:40, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

After doing a little more patent digging, I found that #2891180 is a vibration mount, and is not the earliest such device. The method for ultrasonic welding seems to be first mentioned in #2,522,082 in Feb 1945. Raytheon has a patent for a general vibration device (#2,651,148) from Nov. 1949 which they claim can be used for "bonding plastics and other materials by localized heating", among other things. The first patent to use ultrasonic welding with respect to metals was Aeroprojects (Sonobond) in April 1956, but they do not seem to be the first to pioneer this process in any other regard. I will continue to read up on patent searches and let you know how it goes. 128.180.55.169 (talk) 01:15, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Cool! Thanks for the research. Wizard191 (talk) 12:26, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Possible Additions

I would like to make some changes to this article possibly including changing the history section or adding a section. Please let me know what you think. --Marylee23 05:49, 19 February 2008

Uhhm

"Although there is heating, it is not enough to melt the base materials. Vibrations are introduced along the joint being welded.....Ultrasonic welding appeared in the mid 60's and is rapidly developing. In its infancy, only hard plastics could be welded because their properties were the only fitting—they were acoustically conductive and had a low melting point."

sooo....--Deglr6328 09:15, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that quote seems self-contradictory. Also "The vibrations are introduced across the joint to be welded. ... Vibrations are introduced along the joint being welded." also seems self-contradictory.

Could someone clarify this?

Is it really true that ultrasonic welding of metals is so very different from ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics?

--68.0.120.35 23:49, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

The difference between ultrasonic plastics welding and metals welding is one of 90 degrees. In a plastics welder the parts are vibrated in a compressive manner. In most cases, the plastics welder is a pneumatic press although it could be hydraulic or mechanical. The parts are squeezed together with a certain amount of static force. Then an ultrasonic vibration in line with the compressive force is introduced. Crudely put, it's like a very low-amplitude, very fast, jack hammer. The plastic at the mating surfaces melts and is squashed together.

A metals welder vibrates the material in a shear or scrubbing manner. The joint most always will be some form of a lap joint. The press squeezes the two overlapping pieces together just as in the plastics welder. However, instead of "hammering" in-line with the force, the vibration is introduced at right angles to the clamping force. So as the materials are being squeezed together (say, vertically), they are also being ultrasonically scrubbed at the mating surfaces (horizontally). The metal never melts. It just gets plastic like putty. The mating surfaces rapidly diffuse together,all in less than a second, generally.

The various manufacturers of metals welders predominantly derive their metals welders from their plastics welder designs. One manufacturer does it uniquely differently but it's somewhat more complicated. Common uses for ultrasonic metals welders are wire splicing, foil splicing, welding electrical contacts to internal components of things like relays, capacitors, and circuit breakers, and some uses for sealing refrigeration tubing in the manufacturing of refrigerators and freezers.Chucktronix 19:39, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Redundancy

"Ultrasonic acoustic vibrations" in the first line is redundant. Should be "ultrasonic vibrations" with a parenthetical link to Acoustics if desired.

Definition

I think, the main point should not be "industrial technique" (this is nearly everything) but "type of friction welding" as it is seen by FW and USW specialists.--UtzOnBikeEN (talk) 19:50, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Not ultrasonic...

15kHz/20kHz are not ultrasonic frequencies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.117.176.190 (talk) 18:53, 20 December 2011 (UTC)