Dukane is participating at two upcoming SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers) events, ANTEC® and SPE Decorating & Assembly Division Topical Conference of 2016. We are presenting a paper on “Generating Stronger and Reliable Ultrasonically Welded parts by Utilizing Advanced Melt Flow Controls of Servo Driven Ultrasonic Welding Equipment.” Chief Engineer for Advanced Technologies, Dr. Alexander Savitski and Sr. Application Engineer, Mr. Kenneth Holt will represent Dukane at these events.
Attendees will benefit by learning the advanced control capabilities offered by the servo-driven system. Ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics is widely used by many industries to fuse together two parts in a short time without additional consumables. Development of servo-driven ultrasonic welders introduces unique levels of control. This paper pursues previous research and investigates the capabilities of iQ Series Servo driven ultrasonic welders to produce stronger welds. The focus is to develop a more robust and controlled joining process for medical devices that increases the strength and reliability of welds without fully collapsing the joint or creating excessive weld flash.
During a typical ultrasonic welding cycle most of the plastic melting takes place in the energy director body, and its molten material forms a bond. Generating maximum weld strength when using pneumatic welding systems typically requires that the weld distance be set close to the nominal energy director height, so the energy director is completely melted. Failure to achieve full melt often results in lower strength, incomplete welds, and poor appearance of welded assemblies. As the actual height of the energy director varies, there is always a risk that some of the parts with a shorter energy director will have excessive flash, and if the programmed weld distance is reduced to avoid that, then there is a risk of generating non-hermetic welds. This paper investigates the effect of weld velocity profiling on developing a more robust and controlled joining process capable of achieving strong and reliable welds without fully collapsing the joint while minimizing the risk of excessive flash.
Experiments were completed in which the weld velocity was varied, and the resulting strength and appearance of the welds were evaluated against the intense requirements of the medical industry. Analysis of weld cross sections suggests that higher weld strength was associated with a linearly increasing weld velocity profile.
Details and key findings of these experiments will be shared at these events. ANTEC® 2016, produced by the SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers) is the largest, most respected, and well-known technical conference in the plastics industry. This year it will be held in Indianapolis, IN from Mar 23rdth – 25th. Dukane has been a part of ANTEC® for a significant number of years. SPE Decorating & Assembly Division Topical Conference will be held in Franklin, TN from June 5th-7th. TopCon will include more than 20 papers on the latest technologies in plastics decorating and assembly.
Please find the white paper by visiting https://documents.dukane.com/WhitePapers/UltrasonicallyWeldedParts.pdf or call 630-797-4902 for more info.