Talk:Ultrasonic welding

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Contents 1 Pictures 2 History and Pictures 3 Possible Additions 4 Uhhm 5 Redundancy

[edit] 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)

	It is requested that a photograph or photographs be included in this article to improve its quality.
	The Free Image Search Tool (FIST) may be able to locate suitable images on Flickr and other web sites.

[edit] History and Pictures

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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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)

[edit] Redundancy

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