Enhancing weld in ultrasonic spot welding of carbon fibre-reinforced polyetheretherketone with polyetherimide energy director
Adrian KORYCKI, Christian GARNIER, France CHABERT, Fabrice CARASSUS, Toufik DJILALI
Abstract. Static ultrasonic welding (USW) is a widely used technique for assembling thermoplastic composites. However, joining them remains challenging due to the lack of knowledge of the impact of process parameters (time, pressure, temperature) on welded joints. Continuous USW of large parts is a challenge for industrial applications. Spot welding is a more credible way of assembling large industrial parts. Improving the manufacturing efficiency and weld attributes such as welded area and strength are essential. To achieve this goal, the research was carried out in two steps: i) single-lap welding (SLW) was optimized and assessed in displacement single mode, ii) single-spot welding (SSW) with integrated and loose energy director (ED) was studied. The effect on the welding processes and weld attributes of the manufactured welded joints was investigated. The displacement single mode on integrated ED and a new method using multi-mode ultrasonic welding on loose ED were tested. The results of both approaches were compared to achieve robust sequential ultrasonic welding of thermoplastic composites with integrated or loose energy director. The ultrasonic welding parameters such as time, displacement and pressure with a specific amplitude of vibrations were explored to define the optimum conditions for the chosen composite material. The parts were assembled in a single lap shear (SLS) configuration to evaluate mechanical resistance and to observe the interfaces after failure. Mechanical results indicate that the SSW with a smaller sonotrode size can reach similar values as SLW. The loose ED significantly improved the welding efficiency. The weld resistance was effectively enhanced by adopting multi-mode ultrasonic welding.
Keywords
Thermoplastic Composites, Ultrasonic Spot Welding, Mechanical Properties, Weld Failure
Published online 5/7/2025, 8 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Adrian KORYCKI, Christian GARNIER, France CHABERT, Fabrice CARASSUS, Toufik DJILALI, Enhancing weld in ultrasonic spot welding of carbon fibre-reinforced polyetheretherketone with polyetherimide energy director, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 54, pp 2273-2280, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903599-245
The article was published as article 245 of the book Material Forming
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
References
[1] A. Korycki, C. Garnier, M. Bonmatin, E. Laurent, F. Chabert, Assembling of carbon fibre/PEEK composites: comparison of ultrasonic, induction, and transmission laser welding, Materials, 15/6365 (2022) 1-25, https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15186365
[2] A. Korycki, F. Carassus, O. Tramis, C. Garnier, T. Djilali, F. Chabert, Polyaryletherketone based blends: a review, Polymers, 15/19 (2023) 3943, https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15193943
[3] F. Carassus, A. Korycki, C. Garnier, F. Chabert, M. Yahiaoui, T. Djilali, Influence of Roughness in Ultrasonic Welding of Carbon Fiber/PEEK Composites, in: Materials Research Proceedings, Material Forming – ESAFORM 2023, Krakow, Poland (2023) 1841-1850, https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902479-199
[4] A. Korycki, F. Carassus, C. Garnier, F. Chabert, T. Djilali, Effect of Energy Director Thickness on Thermal Diffusion and Joint Quality during Ultrasonic Welding of CF/PEEK Composites, in: Materials Research Proceedings, Material Forming – ESAFORM 2023, Krakow, Poland (2023) 1819-1828, https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902479-197
[5] A. Arumugam, A. Pramanik, A review on the recent trends in forming composite joints using spot welding variants, Journal of Composites Science, 8/4 (2024) 155, https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs8040155
[6] T. Zhao, G. Palardy, I.F. Villegas, C. Rans, M. Martinez, R. Benedictus, Mechanical behaviour of thermoplastic composites spot-welded and mechanically fastened joints: A preliminary comparison, Composites Part B: Engineering, 112 (2017) 224-234, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2016.12.028
[7] T. Zhao, C. Rans, I. Fernandez Villegas, R. Benedictus, On sequential ultrasonic spot welding as an alternative to mechanical fastening in thermoplastic composite assemblies: a study on single-column multi-row single-lap shear joints, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 120 (2019) 1-11, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2019.02.013
[8] T. Zhao, C. Broek, G. Palardy, I. Villegas Fernandez, R. Benedictus, Towards robust sequential ultrasonic spot welding of thermoplastic composites: Welding process control strategy for consistent weld quality, Composites Part A, 109 (2018) 355-367, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2018.03.024
[9] G. Palardy, H. Shi, A. Levy, S. Le Corre, I. Fernandez Villegas, A study on amplitude transmission in ultrasonic welding of thermoplastic composites, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 113 (2018) 339-349, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2018.07.033
