Welding With Sound

Ultrasonic welding offers assemblers great flexibility and rapid cycle times for joining many plastic or metal parts. Ultrasonic plastic welding is one of the most widely used processes for joining thermoplastics. Ultrasonic metal welding is increasingly being selected for applications where other welding processes are limited, especially for challenging applications where dissimilar metal parts must be joined. Ultrasonic energy has been used in materials joining processes for a number of years. Ultrasonics were first used for metal grain refinement in the 1930s, followed by soldering and resistance welding enhancement in the 1940s, and then to welding plastic and metal parts in the 1950s.

Ultrasonic plastic welding is very popular for quickly joining semicrystalline and amorphous thermoplastics and thermoplastic composites. It is not applicable to thermoset materials. Because this joining process is versatile, economical and fast, it is popular in nearly every industry for a wide range of applications from children’s toys to medical devices. Ultrasonic plastic welding is a forge welding process, heating the parts so they soften and flow to produce a weld. In contrast, ultrasonic metal welding produces solid-state welds without melting the base metals. Ultrasonic metal welding has been applied extensively to joining soft materials, such as copper and aluminum, for applications ranging from electronics to aerospace and automotive. >
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