Advances in Ultrasonic Welding of Thermoplastic Composites: A Review

Abstract

The ultrasonic welding (UW) technique is an ultra-fast joining process, and it is used to join thermoplastic composite structures, and provides an excellent bonding strength. It is more cost-efficient as opposed to the conventional adhesive, mechanical and other joining methods. This review paper presents the detailed progress made by the scientific and research community to date in the direction of the UW of thermoplastic composites. The focus of this paper is to review the recent development of the ultrasonic welding technique for thermoplastic composites to thermoplastic composites, and to dissimilar materials. Different ultrasonic welding modes and their processing parameters, namely, weld time, weld pressure, amplitude, type of energy directors (EDs) affecting the welding quality and the advantages and disadvantages of UW over other bonding techniques, are summarized. The current state of the ultrasonic welding of thermoplastic composites and their future perspectives are also deliberated.

Thermoplastic Pultrusion: A Review

“…The application of thermoplastic polymers in composites holds considerable promise for the use of welded joints; however, the performance of such joints is yet poorly understood and will require the analysis on a case-by-case basis. In spite of the large number of publications in a field of thermoplastics welding in general [ 376 , 377 , 378 , 379 ], there are no studies on the welding of pultruded thermoplastic composites in particular.…”

Review: Filament Winding and Automated Fiber Placement with In Situ Consolidation for Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Polymer Composites

“…Ultrasonic welding is a relatively new technique for ISC of FRTP composites. The technique has been proven to be effective in the joining and repairing of thermoplastic-based components [55]. In ultrasonic welding, high frequency, low-amplitude ultrasonic vibration is applied to the thermoplastic surface through a sonotrode or horn to cause surface and intermolecular friction, resulting in the heating and melting of the thermoplastic polymer [35,56].…”

“…In ultrasonic welding, high frequency, low-amplitude ultrasonic vibration is applied to the thermoplastic surface through a sonotrode or horn to cause surface and intermolecular friction, resulting in the heating and melting of the thermoplastic polymer [35,56]. The advantages of ultrasonic welding include short processing time, good localized heating and low energy requirement [55,56]. For ultrasonic ISC, the horn also acts as a compaction unit to apply pressure onto the FRTP composite.…”

Disassembly Study of Ultrasonically Welded Thermoplastic Composite Joints via Resistance Heating

“…Triangular protrusions are typically employed in the plastics industry, but for continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics, thin films are also suitable and lead to high strength welds [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Many studies in the literature experimentally investigated the effect of process parameters (amplitude, force and control mode) and ED geometry on bond quality [ 10 , 14 , 15 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ] and heat generation [ 18 , 27 , 28 ]. For instance, it was reported that using the vertical displacement of the sonotrode could lead to consistent weld quality using power and displacement curves from the welder.…”