Estimates for process conditions during the ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics

Order of magnitude estimates are presented for processes that play a role in ultrasonic welding. The fact that the sonotrode may not always be in contact with the product being welded, which results in the sonotrode repeatedly hammering the product, is accounted for in this study. The calculations do not use estimates for loss or storage modulus of plastics at 20 kHz around the glass or melting point for amorphous or semicrystalline polymers respectively. The flow of molten polymer in the weld zone is shown to be a laminar viscous squeeze flow driven by the welding pressure. An energy balance is used to show that the heat generated by the internal damping is, in part, used in heating cold material and is squeezed out into the weld flash. The theoretical findings are correlated with existing practical pointers on ultrasonic welding in series and mass production in industry.