Configuration Welding Essay

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Vibration Welding
Vibration welding is a solid state welding process used to join to materials together. To achieve this goal, the parts must be moved very fast relative to one another horizontally under pressure, creating heat through surface friction that melts and welds the parts together. Vibration welding is being used for a wide range of automobile parts such as front and rear light assemblies, fuel filler doors, spoilers, instrument panels, fan surrounds and reservoirs for brake, power steering and vacuum systems. It can be applied to almost all thermoplastic materials, whether injection molded, extruded, blow-molded, thermoformed, foamed or stamped.
Process Steps of Vibration Welding
The vibration welding process consists of the following …show more content…

Because increasing the weld pressure can reduce the strength of the weld by forcing out all the molten plastic, resulting in a cold weld being formed. Hence, we must set the weld pressure at an optimum value so that we can complete the welding in least possible time as well as avoid the cold weld being formed.
Vibration welding equipment is either time controlled or depth controlled. If the equipment is depth controlled, then time is variable and vice-versa. Depth control is preferable. Weld penetration or displacement is crucial in determining the weld strength. As long as the threshold is reached, weld strengths are not very sensitive to welding frequency and amplitude; however, at a constant threshold value, weld strengths can decrease with increasing weld pressure. The maximum weld strength that can be achieved for parts made up of same material is approximately 75% of the strength of the original material. To achieve this high strength the parts should be designed such that the weld depth is in between 1.2 to 2.2 mm [21]. Figure 12: Material Strength of a welded joint (% parent material strength vs. weld depth for tensile test specimens of constant thickness). …show more content…

The testing not only enables us to achieve optimum process conditions but also gives scope for in process quality control. For this specific application the dynamic testing has more significance than the static testing. The Dynamic Burst Pressure Test is a suitable testing for this purpose. In this testing we send highly pressurized air into the air bag and check for the failure loads of the welded joint. The pressure rise time is typically, 5-15 milliseconds. [21] The burst strength of a vibration weld can be improved by 50% by proper control of welding process parameters.

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